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School management team: senses and meaning that the participants attribute to their activity. A study from the sociohistorical perspective

Theme:
1.4 Interventionist research approaches and their roots
What:
Paper in a Symposium (Symp)
When:
5:20 PM, Tuesday 29 Aug 2017 (30 minutes)
Where:
How:
This research focused on three school management teams, each composed by principal, coordinator and vice-principal, from three public schools of Greater São Paulo (two state and one municipal). The general goal of the investigation was to understand the phenomenon of school management from the subjects that experience it. The specific goal of this research was to grasp the meanings the participants (principal, coordinator and vice-principal) attribute to their activity in the school. The participants (three principals, three coordinators and two vice-principals) were selected due to being part of schools that were voluntarily part of projects offered by research groups connected to Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (Teaching Activity and Subjectivity and Language and Activities in School Contexts – LACE). The information was produced with the eight participants from interviews, reflective meetings and training meetings, according to the specificities of each project and school. Anchored in the Sociohistorical Psychology, this research emphasizes the contributions from Vigotski (1925, 1926, 1927, 1930, 1934), one of its main theoretician, as well as the contributions from: Leontiev (1977; 1978a, b and c; 1983; 2004), Engeström (1987; 1999), Bakhtin (1929, 1979) and Bakhtin/Volochinov (1929-30). It also considered the works of contemporary theoreticians that discuss the subjective dimension of the human constitution process, namely: González Rey (2005a, b; 2007), Mitjáns Martinez (2005), Gonçalves and Beck (2009), Aguiar and Ozella (2006; 2013) and Aguiar, Soares and Machado (2014). It is important to highlight that, in different ways and with different emphases, all these contexts had in the Collaboration Critical Research (Pesquisa Crítica de Colaboração – PCCol) (MAGALHÃES, 1998, 2009, 2011, 2012; MAGALHÃES & FIDALGO, 2007; LIBERALI, 2011, 2012) a common aspect, that proved itself relevant to both the construction of new ways of conducting the research and the results themselves. The analysis of the information, following the same conceptual alignment, is based on the theoretical-methodological process named “Meaning Nuclei” (AGUIAR & OZELLA, 2006, 2013), which was of great contribution to the process of data abstraction in order to grasp the historical materiality and dialectics of meanings that the managers attribute to their activity. Taking into account, from the adopted perspective, that the meanings represent the synthesis of the objectivity and subjectivity, the analyses show that the managers’ speeches are expressions of the social reality, and more specifically in this case, of the education reality of our country, considering, however, that all meanings are dialectically constructed by historical subjects. In this sense, it became evident i) the importance of method and of a constructive interpretative analysis based on the theoretical-methodological procedures called “Meaning Nuclei” in order to grasp the meanings the managers give their activities; ii) the importance of the role of the principal to the possibility of school improvement; iii) the relevance of the managers initial training and continuing education for the attainment of positive results in the learning of students and teachers; iv) the fundamental importance of the State in guaranteeing the human and material resources to the realization of education public policies, regarding salaries and teaching career, already determined by law; v) the contribution of research groups in promoting spaces for discussion and learning in the school; vi) the relevance of research and extension projects based on a collaborative and critical perspective in transforming the meanings the managers attribute to their activity, thus opening up the possibility for transformation in the school through new action taken by those that are responsible for it.
 
Participant
Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo
Participant
Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo
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