Coordenação Pedagógica Geral em Belo Horizonte: das demandas de criação às concepções

Abstract

In the current context, in which social demands increasingly delegate responsibilities to school institutions, pedagogical coordination lays out its role as a kind of essential link among the assorted groups that make up school communities. With respect to Belo Horizonte, the educational policy proposal has, as one of its milestones, the year 1995 with the implementation of the "Escola Plural" (Plural School). From this program, which has as one of its central points the proposal for a radical intervention in the organizational logic of schools, emerges the figure of the pedagogical coordinator. At that time, the possibility for any tenured teacher in the Municipal position to perform the role of pedagogical coordinator, regardless of their initial training, represented a break in the logic that segmented the planning and execution of teaching work within the municipal education system. The new role to be played by teachers instinctively represents an expansion of their responsibilities, which interferes with their professionalism. Following a period of 23 years, another major restructuring of school work organization creates the position of General Pedagogical Coordinator in the municipal network, consequently provoking new (re)configurations of work in coordination. Thus, this research investigates how the General Pedagogical Coordinator is constructing their role within schools. More specifically, it aims to identify the demands that lead to the creation of the position, analyze it from the perspective of legislation, and examine the conceptions that General Pedagogical Coordinators are developing regarding their own role. For this purpose, a qualitative approach is employed, using the following tools for data collection: analysis of official documents at the municipal, state, and federal levels; semi-structured interviews with a representative of the Municipal Department of Education; application of questionnaires; and discussion, in the form of an online focus group, with nine teachers from the municipal network of Belo Horizonte who hold the position of General Pedagogical Coordinator. The analytical framework draws on the studies of Placco; Almeida; Souza (2011, 2017), Freire (1983, 2001), Libâneo (2008), Sacristán (2014), Pires; Gauthier (2014), and Pires (2015). Among the primary findings is the relationship between the creation of the General Pedagogical Coordinator position and the needs for increasingly integrated pedagogical assistance between the service shifts in municipal schools in Belo Horizonte. The conceptions that coordinators build about their own tasks indicate a clear understanding that the municipality's educational policy aims to guarantee students' learning rights. However, despite actively seeking to work towards this goal, coordinators point out difficulties in effectively developing all the areas of work for which they are responsible. Examples of these difficulties include an excess of tasks, difficulty in managing a high number of people, inadequate staffing levels, and a lack of time for what they consider most important in their role: in-service training. Being linked to a professional master's program, this dissertation facilitated the creation of an educational resource containing practical inspirations for the organization of the work of coordinators.