Management and School Culture: bridges to teachers and parental involvement

Resumo

Objective: This multiple case study aims to know the practices of school principals for the involvement of teachers and parents, considering the organizational culture and context in Brazilian public elementary schools.

Methodology/approach: To this end, principals responded to a semi-structured interview and data on various outcomes, socioeconomic level, and elementary school development index were collected. Instructional leadership, transformational leadership, and organizational culture were the objective of the data analysis, done by axial, open and selective coding.

Originality/Relevance: There are few studies on school management practices considering the context and organizational culture in public (elementary) schools in Brazil - focusing on the school manager's relationships with teachers and principals. More specifically, this study investigates such practices in the context of democratic management - where managers participate in an electoral process and are chosen by teachers, parents of students, students, cleaning staff, kitchen staff, and security guards. Additionally, this study covered two of the three full-time schools in the municipality. Thus there is a research gap filled by this study.

Main results: The results demonstrate obstacles for teacher and parent involvement and that dialogue can be a vehicle for cultural modification of the school.

Theoretical/methodological contributions: The study contributes by pointing out that school segments have influence on each other and can be barriers or bridges to teacher and parent involvement.