Jornal de Políticas Educacionais
On-line version ISSN 1981-1969
Abstract
MIRANDA, Silvana Stadniki Morato and CRUZ, Fernanda Natasha Bravo. Student ombudsmen as a new instrument of democratic school management. J. Pol. Educ-s [online]. 2022, vol.16, e87824. Epub May 30, 2023. ISSN 1981-1969. https://doi.org/10.5380/jpe.v16i0.87824.
Democratic management in schools is a principle established by the Brazilian Federal Constitution and reinforced by the Education Guidelines and Bases Law (Law No. 9,394, of 1996). The feasibility of the school community participation is facilitated through the establishment of public action instruments, the best known of which is the political-pedagogical project, in which the school community participates in its elaboration and evaluation, and also school councils, parent-teacher associations and student unions, participatory institutions in which their members participate and deliberate within their scope of action. However, the so-called student ombudsmen, an institutional processes in some Brazilian states and municipalities, can serve as a strengthening instrument for democratic management at school. This article reflects on current aspects of school democratic management and demonstrates the experience of implementing a student ombudsman program in the city of Santos/SP, pointing out new practical possibilities that can be developed by managers and teachers, with a view to promoting participatory management, in the light of contemporary democratic theory.
Keywords : school democratic management; student ombudsman; democratic theory; representative and participatory democracy.