Constituindo-se diretora: entre histórias, memórias e representações em escolas de Bento Gonçalves/RS na década de 1960

Abstract

This paper is the result of an investigation on school administration practices, based on the professional history of elementary school principals from the city of Bento Gonçalves, in southern Brazil. The time scope is the 1960s, when the interviewees started their jobs as principals. The decade, which is our analysis reference, is also an important time due to the social and political aspects of the country, which have influenced education to this day, especially when it comes to the history of school management. Also, it helps us understand the transcendences of the time, some of them still present in nowadays? educational culture. The theoretical and methodological background includes Cultural History studies, mainly based on the contributions by Burke (1992), Certeau (1994), Chartier (2002), Halbwachs (2006), Pesavento (2006), and Tardif (2002). The methodological development used ideas from Oral History, considering memoirs as historical documents, from Grazziotin and Almeida (2012), Alberti (2004), and Ferreira and Amado (2005), besides the use of document analysis. The written documents used were the Reports of CPOE/RS, the journal Revista do Ensino/RS, and the records from Cadernos da ANPAE, all produced during the time scope of the research. The study analyzes the perspective and history of school administration, and the role of school principals in a local context, considering facts and situations that occurred in a certain time and space. The research seeks to examine, based on documents from local public archives, evidence of the school administration system in public schools in Bento Gonçalves. With the narratives, as well as the documents, such as the CPOE / RS Reports and the RE / RS, it was possible to understand the processes that influenced the interviewees, such as their knowledge from experience, which was acquired and processed through difficulties and questions that had emerged from real practices, leading them through a learning process that considered institutions such as ANPAE and CPOE / RS. In the interviewees? history, their experiences as teachers were well evidenced and pointed out as references until they became school principals. School administration practices were influenced by the policies of the Secretariat of Education, through the CPOE and the Regional Teaching Precincts. Also, their strategies were influenced by their experiences and needs, determined by the representations that made it possible to conceive how the subjects of education own them and how they structure the social world. In the 1960s, the production on this subject was fertile in terms of movement and organization in the theoretical field of educational administration. The pioneering and leading role of the National Association of School Administration Teachers (ANPAE) stands out. Researching the principals? perceptions of school management practices made it possible to understand, from the analysis, the representations attributed to them, the meaning of their role in the researched historical period, and the political and social contributions, in addition to registering their experiences through their memories.