Introduction

The article discusses the democratic management in the movement of institutionalization of Municipal Education Systems (SME) of 21 municipalities of the Education Regionals of Colinas and Paraíso do Tocantins⁶. As a starting issue, the study seeks to know to what extent democratic management, focusing on goal 19 of the 2014-2024 National Education Plan (PNE) and its strategies, has been carried out within the scope of the Networks and the SME in the period from 2014 to 2023.

The study aims to explain the level of achievement of the democratic management in the 21 municipalities mentioned by comparing what was planned in relation to goal 19 of the 2014-2024 PNE with what was planned and carried out in the scope of municipal education.

We seek to understand democratic management not as a prescription on how to participate in the management of education, but as a contradictory historical-social practice forged through struggles and disputes that, in the Gramscian understanding of the State, takes place in the articulation between the elements of class domination (consensus/hegemony) and direction (force/coercion). In this sense, based on Gramscian thought (^{GRAMSCI, 1978}), the study is based on the conception of democracy based on the understanding of the philosophy of praxis. This conception seeks to overcome the formal procedures and mechanisms of participation – which privilege the execution of tasks and orders in the process of a given social production, in general – and seeks to problematize the centralizing and authoritarian relations of power, placing as a horizon the overcoming of the deep-rooted separation between leaders and those directed (^{CARVALHO; LAGARES, 2023}; ^{CARVALHO; SILVA, 2023}).

In view of the problem and proposed objective, we adopted the critical-dialectical method of study materialized through bibliographic and documentary research. To this end, the text recovers the Gramscian understanding of class direction (consensus/hegemony) and mastery (force/coercion) as knowledge necessary for the study of the theoretical and practical foundations of democratic management expressed in the 2014-2024 PNE (^{BRASIL, 2014}; ^{BRASIL/MEC, 2014}; ^{DOURADO, 2016}; ²⁰¹⁸; ^{Saviani, 1998}; ²⁰¹⁰; ²⁰¹⁴; ^{SCHEIBE, 2014}), particularly in relation to Goal 19, with its impacts on state and municipal education systems.

In this sense, it is fundamental to understand the notion of will and the material conditions for the realization of the democratic management of the SME, as well as the notion of hegemony built through the realization of wars of position and movement. With this understanding, we study the conception of democratic management expressed in the PNE that is preceded by a process of struggles and disputes that explain the education projects of economic-corporate hegemony, but, contradictorily, is tensioned by ethical-political elements that enhance an education against hegemony in a democratic-emancipatory perspective (^{FERREIRA; BITTAR, 2008}; ^{CARVALHO, 2011}; ^{CARVALHO; CARVALHO; RODRIGUES, 2019}; ^{DURIGUETTO, 2007}; ^{NEVES, 2005}; ^{GAULEJAC, 2007}; ^{SIMIONATTO, 2005}; ^{WITTMANN, 2001}; GRACINDO, 2001; ^{WOOD, 2006}).

The findings of the study covering the geographic time frame of this 1) introductory section were organized as a method of exposure in sections 2) democratization, democracy and democratic management of education in education systems and networks in Brazil, 3) democratic management of municipal education in the Education Regionals of Colinas and Paraíso do Tocantins with a focus on goal 19 of the 2014-2024 PNE and 4) summarized consideration of the constraints of democratic management.

Democratization, democracy and democratic management of education in education networks and systems in Brazil

The debate about the democratic management of the Networks and the SME in the sense adopted in this article is organically linked to the process of democratization and democracy of Gramscian conception based on the understanding of social practice that takes place in the dialectical contradiction between individual/collective wills and the material and ideological conditions of its realization.

[...] To escape solipsism and at the same time the mechanistic conceptions that are implicit in the conception of thought as receptive and ordering activity, one must place the problem in a ‘historicist’ way and, simultaneously, place the ‘will’ (ultimately, practical or political activity) at the basis of philosophy, but a rational non-arbitrary will, which is realized insofar as it corresponds to historical objective needs, that is, in what is the universal history itself at the moment of its progressive realization

(^{GRAMSCI, 2006}, p. 202).

In Gramsci’s understanding, it is not thought, let alone individual thought, that determines the real. However, even though he is aware of the preponderance of the historically determined material dimension, he sees political will as an important factor in historical development. That is, collective will and political will, in general, in the modern sense need to be understood “as a working consciousness of historical necessity, as the protagonist of a real and effective historical drama” (^{GRAMSCI, 2007}, p. 17).

By inference we can say that wills are already determined at the level of material interests. These wills undergo, however, a process of universalization that leads to the formation of collective subjects, having as a microsocial space the corporate or private apparatuses of hegemony⁷. The author, however, does not understand the real as a historical determination, but as a contradictory part of the real. Thus, “economic-corporate” interests are overcome by “ethical-political” consciousness. It is a dialectical movement, defined as “catharsis”, that is, the overcoming of the moment of need by the moment of freedom, from structure to superstructure; of a consensual contract made possible through the intersubjective construction of the national-popular “general will” or “collective will”.

Gramsci is aware that the overcoming of capitalist society is a condition for the realization of an effective national-popular contract, but he defends the “war of position” as a strategy in the dialectical process of social overcoming mentioned. Thus, he disagrees with its implementation spontaneously, as he defends the struggle for progressive conquests that propitiate democraticpopular hegemony. The author understands that it is from the struggle between the various groups and corporations or social forces that a universal consciousness can be created aimed at the common public good without however denying individualities and particularities. Gramsci’s perspective of political action – in view of a broad vision of the State that articulates political society and civil society and the struggle for a counter-hegemony that adopts as a strategy the “war of position” without disregarding the “war of movement”⁸ – is important to analyze a certain social reality and, in this sense, guide the reflections present in this text.

The construction of democratic-popular hegemony needs to articulate macro-social struggles with micro-social struggles, that is, to encompass all possible social spaces, including civil society and political society. In this sense, the battle to build a democraticpopular hegemony certainly⁹ involves social institutions such as churches, schools, universities and other private hegemony apparatuses. In the case of educational institutions as an arena for the struggle for educational policies, these are, therefore, concrete spaces of political struggle for democracy and effective participation that involves the conquest of decision-making power, thus reducing the distance between leaders and those directed. In this direction is the democratic management expressed in the National Education Plan 2014-2024, considering, based on the Gramscian perspective, the articulated moments of hegemony (consensus) and force (coercion) with their repercussions for the Networks and the SME.

The Gramscian understanding of democracy is clearly related to the process of disalienation, of control of the social subject over the process of production and reproduction of social life that, in capitalist society, tends to be uncontrollable. However, the more the social being interacts in society, in its various spaces, the more it can overcome the obstacles and barriers that constitute the process of alienation, thus enabling the expansion of freedom and autonomy of individuals in social spaces. Socialization in the various decision-making spaces is a fertile path for the alleged reduction of fragmentation and capitalist productivist control towards a social perspective of emancipatory tendency that also covers democratic management – as expressed in goal 19 and strategies 19.1 to 19.8 of the 2014-2024 PNE – and its effectiveness within the scope of the Networks, the SME and schools of the 21 municipalities that constitute the empirical basis of this study.

Social classes and social categories such as that of education workers are important for the conquest of hegemony in the perspective of a project of society, education and institutional management with better conditions of emancipation. The “war of position” that covers the various spaces of production and reproduction of social life, involving formal and non-formal, parliamentary and extra-parliamentary spaces is fundamentally necessary in the construction of a less alienated society. Dealienation requires, in addition to specific actions, a continuous process of autonomy and effectively participatory democracy in society in general and in its institutions, seeking the constitution of social public policies, such as those expressed at the national, state and municipal education plans, with emphasis on democratic management synthesized in Goal 19 of the 2014-2024 PNE. Social institutions, particularly cultural and educational ones, are important spaces for struggles for power, when located in the macro social system, because “all hegemonic relations are necessarily a pedagogical relationship [...]” (^{GRAMSCI, 2006}, p. 399).

Referenced in Gramscian arguments, we infer that, historically, human practice can both reaffirm the hegemonic project of society and can counter it by explaining a state of crisis. Thus, the democratic management expressed in the 2014-2024 National Education Plan – considering, based on the Gramscian perspective, the articulated moments of hegemony (consensus) and force (coercion) – can thus constitute an instrument in strengthening the dominant hegemony; however, contradictorily, it can also carry a counter-hegemonic project of society and education capable of contributing to the production of a socio-cultural and political block of an ethical-political nature in articulation with the structural level developing in society.

We emphasize, however, that the modification of the effective reality requires from social subjects more than knowledge and will; it also requires political action that articulates an organic action in the decision-making spaces of political society or political-administrative apparatus and in the various spaces of production and reproduction of social life, involving formal and non-formal, parliamentary and extra-parliamentary environments. This movement can enhance an important process of autonomy and effectively participatory democracy in society, in general, and in social institutions, such as educational ones. It is a potential multidetermined contradictory movement due to different conditions: material, ideological, cultural, political, institutional and organizational/communicational (^{CARVALHO, 2011}) of social relations, in general, and educational, in particular.

Thus, it is relevant to explain – in relation to the 2014-2024 PNE – the level of democratic management in the movement of institutionalization of the SMEs and schools within the scope of municipal education, covering the subjects of municipal education, the spaces and mechanisms of participation of the educational community. By this way of understanding, the SMEs, including school institutions, are important trenches of the war of position in which the struggle for an effectively democratic education and management seems to advance slowly due to authoritarian educational social practices supported by prescriptivemanagerial management trends that finds support in the patrimonialist and clientelist political culture (^{CHAUÍ, 2001}; ²⁰⁰⁶; ^{MENDONÇA, 2001}). It is with this understanding – and with reference to goal 19 of the 2014-2024 PNE – that we seek to understand the realization of democratic management in the SMEs of the 21 municipalities of the Education Regionals of Colinas and Paraíso do Tocantins taken as a sample in this study.

Democratic management of municipal education in the Education Regionals of Colinas and Paraíso do Tocantins with a focus on goal 19 of the 2014-2024 PNE

This text took as an empirical basis of study the Program for Institutionalization and Management of Municipal Education Systems (PRISME) which aims to ensure training to its participants and support the process of effective institutionalization and management of the SME so that municipalities constitute autonomy and fulfill their educational tasks, integrating with the policies and plans of the Union and the State, having as articulating axes of the system the Municipal Education Plan (PME) and the Articulated Action Plan (PAR).

PRISME has the adhesion/participation of 117 municipalities in Tocantins and a total of 850 participants linked to strategic spaces linked to education/municipal management. Within the scope of the Education Regionals of Colinas do Tocantins and Paraíso do Tocantins, 139 subjects were initially registered in PRISME, distributed as shown in the following table:

Regarding the number of participants registered in the two education regionals mentioned, an important participation was registered in the training moments carried out by PRISME/RCT¹⁰, according to the following quantitative description. We emphasize the greater participation of PRISME/RCT municipal supervisors, the technical representation of the municipal department of education, the invited participants of the SME and the representatives of the Municipal Councils of Education.

In view of the objective of PRISME and, in view of the process of democratization of the management of education and schools, we present in this section the perception of the municipalities regarding the realization of goal 19 of the 2014-2024 PNE within the scope of the Education Regionals of Colinas do Tocantins and Paraíso do Tocantins, which cover 21 municipalities. This perception is extracted through the asynchronous activity II developed by the municipalities, specifically from the indicated level in relation to each of the 8 strategies of goal 19. The analysis of the evidence presented sought to verify whether or not it is in line with the level indicated, seeking to understand from a theoretical/legal and documentary/supporting point of view how the achievement of this goal is in these municipalities.

The answers given by the municipalities and their respective evidences were analyzed in the light of the¹¹ criteria for evaluation of consonance/inconsonance elaborated by PRISME, which are based on the theoretical and legal framework that supports the Program. In this sense, the level of institutionalization/realization of the goal and its strategies varies between 0 and V, as shown in the following table:

Regarding goal 19, Law 13.005/2014 that approves the 2014-2024 PNE establishes that municipalities must “ensure conditions, within two (2) years, for the effectiveness of the democratic management of education, associated with technical criteria of merit and performance and public consultation to the school community, within the scope of public schools, providing resources and technical support from the Union to do so” (^{BRASIL, 2014}). In view of the goal in question, the analysis of the evidence related to its 08 strategies reveals that most municipalities still face significant difficulties in this regard, as shown in the following table.

Graphs 1 and 2 express the level of indication of achievement of the strategies of goal 19 of the 2014-2024 PNE by the SME, according to the perception of the subjects registered in PRISME/RCT and the evidence attached to the Virtual Environment of Interactive Educational Nature (AVNEI).

GRAPH 1 Weighted average of achievement of the strategies of goal 19 of the 2014-2024 PNE by the municipalities of the Education Regionals of Colinas and Paraíso do Tocantins in 2023 

GRAPH 2 General average of achievement of the strategies of goal 19 of the 2014-2024 PNE by indicated level by the municipalities of the Education Regionals of Colinas and Paraíso do Tocantins in 2023 

In general, according to the following graph, in relation to the levels indicated by the 21 municipalities of the Education Regionals of Colinas and Paraíso do Tocantins regarding the effective achievement of goal 19 of the 2014-2024 PNE, 51% presented evidence that is consonant and 49% that is inconsonant with the current legislation and the criteria described in footnote 6.

Graph 3 Level of achievement of goal 19 of the 2014-2024PNE by the municipalities of the Education Regionals of Colinas and Paraíso do Tocantins in 2023 

As seen in table 4, in strategy 19.1, which deals with legislation and other standards as criteria for the democratic management of systems and schools covering the appointment of principals and contemplating the participation of the school community, of the 21 participating municipalities, none indicated level 0 and only 2 indicated level I presenting evidence consonant with the indicated level. The 19 municipalities with inconsonant evidence are distributed as follows: 1 at level I, 4 at level II, 5 at level III, 7 at level IV and 2 at level V. The 9 municipalities that indicated levels IV and V, however, also presented inconsonant evidence, since they did not prove the creation of the Democratic Management Law and the choice of school principals with the participation of the community.

The approval of the Democratic Management Law by the municipality is a requirement of LDB Law 9394/1996 (art. 14), as well as Law 13.005/2014, which establishes the 2014-2024 PNE. The two laws impose the need for the municipality to discipline the democratic management of education in order to contemplate all the strategies of goal 19 of the PNE with a view to the institutionalization and management of the Municipal Education System, going beyond the idea of democratic management indicated by the municipalities as the choice of school principals. Such a system, as ^{Saviani (2010, p. 3)} argues, “[...] is not a monolithic, undifferentiated unit, but a unity of diversity, a whole that articulates a variety of elements that when integrated into the whole do not lose their own identity; on the contrary, they participate in the whole, they integrate the system in the form of their respective specificities”.

Strategy 19.2 concerns support with physical and financial infrastructure for the training of counselors who are members of the councils: Fundeb, School Feeding, Regional and Public Policy Monitoring. Regarding this strategy, 6 out of 21 municipalities presented evidence consonant with the indicated level: 1 level I, 1 level II, 2 level III, 1 level IV and 1 level V. The remaining 15 municipalities were classified as follows – 1 level II, 4 level III, 9 level IV and 1 level V, but presented evidence inconsonant with the indication made.

As established by the LDB and the PNE, effective support for the training of counselors and the performance of their functions is an important prerequisite for ensuring the democratic management of public educational policy. Therefore, it is essential that the municipality ensures physical and financial conditions to comply with this strategy through the training of directors and the allocation of rooms, equipment, transportation, among other mechanisms necessary for the implementation of this action.

Strategy 19.3 deals with the creation and operation of permanent education forums within the scope of the SME. In this regard, 12 out of 21 municipalities presented evidence consonant with the indicated level, 2 level 0, 1 level I, 1 level III, 6 level IV and 2 level V. The other 9 municipalities presented inconsonant evidence, 1 level II, 2 level III, 5 level IV and 1 level V; the latter, even indicating having created the FME, did not present evidence considered consonant.

According to the current legislation, notably the 1988 Federal Constitution, LDB No. 9394/1996 and Law No. 13.005/2014, the Permanent Education Forum is one of the elements of democratic management. It is an essential space for collective debate and participation of society in decision-making related to municipal education. It is, therefore, a locus of guarantee of the practice of collegiate management of education that involves several segments of society at the municipal level and for this reason it must be implemented by the municipalities (^{AGUIAR DE CARVALHO, 2023}).

Regarding strategy 19.4, for its better understanding within the scope of PRISME, it was divided into two strategies: 19.4A that deals with Student Unions and 19.4B that addresses ParentTeacher Associations (APMs). Regarding the strategy 19.4A , 18 out of 21 municipalities presented consonant evidence, 7 level 0; 10 level 1; and 1 level 3, most of them (17) indicated that they do not contemplate policies and/or actions for the realization of student unions within the scope of municipal education. The other 3 municipalities indicated: 2 level II and 1 level IV, although having answered that they develop actions for the creation and strengthening of student unions, they did not present evidence consonant with the answer given.

The constitution of the student unions, among other spaces of this nature, is a right of the student that is ensured by the Brazilian State through Law 13.005/2014, strategy 19.4 - PNE (^{BRASIL, 2014}) and Law 8.069/1990, art. 53, Item IV – Statute of Children and Adolescents (^{BRASIL, 1990}). As spaces for democratic-participatory learning, the student unions are fundamental to the promotion of students’ autonomy and their socio-political formation, therefore, a place to exercise their citizenship. The legislation, by establishing the need to create these spaces within public schools, seeks to demarcate that the student unions contribute to the construction of democracy at school, at the municipality and in society, therefore, they cooperate to strengthen the public sphere (^{AGUIAR DE CARVALHO, 2023}).

Regarding the 19.4B strategy related to the Parent-Teacher Association, 12 municipalities presented evidence consonant with the indicated level, 2 level 0, 1 level I, 2 level II, 3 level III, 1 level IV and 3 level V. The 9 other municipalities indicated that they are in the following levels – 1 level II, 3 level III, 3 level IV and 2 level V, however, in all of them the evidence presented is inconsonant with the levels indicated.

As determined by Law 13.005 of 2014, Parent-Teacher Associations (APMs) are fundamental spaces to give parents, teachers, servants and students a voice in the process of building collective solutions to the demands of the school community so that the school’s educational objectives are achieved. For this reason, as one of the elements of democratic education management, APMs should be implemented in schools with a view to democratizing spaces and relationships in the school environment (^{AGUIAR DE CARVALHO, 2023}).

As for strategy 19.5, which deals with the institution and functioning of school councils and municipal education councils, the evidence presented by the 21 municipalities is consonant with the indicated levels only in 13 of them, 2 level 0; 3 level I; 6 level III; and 2 level IV. The other 8 municipalities, presented inconsonant evidence with the indicated levels: 1 level II; 3 level II; and 4 level V. Based on the evidence posted in AVNEI, no municipality proved to fit into level V, which is considered the ideal level characterized, therefore, by the existence of norms related to the strategy and the guarantee of satisfactory conditions for its realization, with effective participation of the educational/school community, according to 100% of the evidence presented.

Thus, in relation to the implementation of strategy 19.5, evidence indicates that municipalities still face a high degree of difficulty and/or resistance regarding the guarantee of concrete mechanisms for the participation of society/school community in the management of educational policy and schools policy, such as school councils. In this regard it is important to emphasize, according to a report extracted from AVNEI (^{PRISME/AVNEI/RCT, 2023}), that the creation of these spaces with deliberative functions, among others, has the purpose of guaranteeing the collegiate management of public education and the participation of the school community in the definition, implementation and evaluation of educational policy within the school unit. Collective decision-making by schools is a constitutional precept guaranteed by art. 205, item VI of the Federal Constitution of 1988, as well as by the LDB, Law 9.394/96, art. 14, and by the PNE, Law 13.005/2014, strategy 19.5, which is why it is necessary for the SMEs to implement this important element of democratic management within their territories.

Strategy 19.6 of the PNE determines that states and municipalities should “encourage the participation and consultation of education professionals, students and their families in the formulation of political-pedagogical projects, school curricula, school management plans and school regulations, ensuring the participation of parents in the evaluation of teachers and school managers.” As shown in table 4 and graph 3, in relation to this strategy 11 out of 21 municipalities presented evidence consonant with the indicated level: 2 level 0; 2 level I; 2 level II; 3 level III; 1 level 4; and 1 level V. The other 10 municipalities indicated levels inconsonant with the evidence presented: 1 level II; 5 level III; 3 level IV; and 1 level V.

Still on strategy 19.6, it is important to note that among the 21 municipalities only 1 proved to be at level V. This suggests that the other 20 municipalities show evidence of little permeability to the participation of the school community in the school management process, which concerns, for example, the formulation of the pedagogical political project, the management plan and the school regulation, in consonance with what is established in the Federal Constitution (art. 205), the LDB (art. 14) and the 2014-2024 PNE (Goal 19).

With regard to strategy 19.7, as established in art. 15 of the LDB, “education systems will ensure that public school units of basic education integrate progressive degrees of pedagogical, administrative and financial management autonomy, subject to the general rules of public financial law”, a principle that is ratified by Law 13.005/2014 (PNE). In this regard, according to table 4 and graph 3, the evidence presented was consonant with the levels indicated by 12 municipalities, which indicated: 3 level 0; 8 level I; and 1 level V. The 09 other municipalities presented evidence inconsonant with the levels indicated: 5 level III; 2 level IV; and 2 level V.

As shown by the figures related to strategy 19.7, and based on the criteria of analysis of consonance/inconsonance of the evidence, only 1 out of the set of 21 municipalities ensures the autonomy of schools as established in the educational legislation. Therefore, it is important to emphasize the relevance of school autonomy as a fundamental element of the democratic management of education and schools, whose effectiveness is only possible if the subjects that make up the school community act collectively in defining the directions of the school. Thus, democracy at schools does not materialize without guaranteeing, among others, the real conditions for the construction of school autonomy in its financial, pedagogical and administrative dimensions, which demands that municipalities seek to carry out this strategy as one of the conditions to implement goal 19 of the PNE and ensure the institutionalization and management of their SMEs (^{AGUIAR DE CARVALHO, 2023}).

Finally, in relation to strategy 19.8, which deals with “[...] developing training programs for school principals and managers, as well as applying specific national tests, in order to subsidize the definition of objective criteria for the provision of positions, the results of which can be used by adhesion”, the indicated levels, with consonant evidence, were as follows: 3 level 0; 3 level I; 1 level II; 3 level III; and 1 level V, totaling 11 municipalities. The other 10 municipalities presented evidence inconsonant with the indicated levels: 1 level II; 5 level III; 3 level IV; and 1 level V.

In general, the data related to the indicated levels and the evidence presented by the 21 municipalities in relation to the implementation of the 8 strategies of goal 19 of the 2014-2024 PNE indicate a management perspective that is not very permeable to the participation within SMEs and schools. This difficulty in ensuring the existence and functioning of collegiate spaces for effective participation in the scope of education, as well as other public policies, is the result of the authoritarian, patrimonial and clientelist political culture that crosses the Brazilian State and that guides public management practices of a managerial nature, hindering social participation in the perspective of political dispute and democratic control aimed at guaranteeing the public interest and rights (^{AGUIAR DE CARVALHO, 2022}; ^{PEREIRA, 2005}; ^{CHAUÍ, 2002}). According to the framework adopted in this text, this management perspective strengthens the class that owns the means of production and not the working class. In this sense, the dispute for democraticparticipatory management needs to continue to be a part of the trenches as battles of movement and position within civil and political societies.

Revisiting the data in table 4 expressed in graph 4 below it is possible to have an overview of the implementation of the strategies of goal 19 of the 2014-2024 PNE within the scope of the SMEs and schools of the 21 municipalities that constitute the empirical basis of this study.

Graph 4 Achievement of the strategies of goal 19 of the 2014-2024 PNE by the 21 municipalities focus of the study: level indicated by the SME, evidence consonant and inconsonant with current legislation 

We found that on a scale from 0 to 6 the average level of consonance of effective achievement of goal 19 within the scope of municipal education ranged from 0.66 (level 2) to 3.44 (level 1), revealing that for the achievement of this goal in the 21 municipalities of the Education Regionals of Colinas and Paraíso do Tocantins it is necessary that the subjects of municipal education remain mobilized to overcome the various obstacles encountered and create the necessary conditions for the institutionalization and management of the SMEs and schools understood as a unit of diversity.

In this sense, the institutionalization of the SMEs – which is constituted “from the unity of several elements intentionally brought together in order to form a coherent and operative set” (^{SAVIANI, 2010}, p. 3) – is hampered by economic, legal, political and philosophical-ideological obstacles that interfere in the process of standardization, organization and consolidation of actions to ensure, among other aspects, the participation of the school and local community in the management of school and education.

Summarized consideration of the conditioning factors of democratic management

In view of the above – considering what was presented regarding the realization of democratic management within the scope of the SMEs and schools of the 21 municipalities of the Education Regionals of Colinas and Paraíso do Tocantins and the theoretical framework discussed in section 2 – we can deduce that the democratic management of education as a fundamental social right, although in a constructive movement, is contradictorily multidetermined by antidemocratic social forces, expressed in the little political will related to the realization of democratic management with a focus on goal 19 more favorable to public school and the working class.

Thinking about the movement of institutionalization of the SMEs and schools as a space in which we position ourselves in defense of emancipatory education, of socially referenced quality and democratic management as social praxis, we retain from the aforementioned contradiction the learning that the trench of struggle is not ready and its construction must constitute a continuous task of struggles and disputes.

In this perspective, the organization of the democratic management within the scope of the SMEs and schools must be considered simultaneously with the execution of the efforts to participate in the open spaces related to the strategies of goal 19 that cover: the possibilities of elaborating and promulgating the democratic management law; training as an educational praxis of the subjects of municipal education; the organization of participation spaces such as conferences, forums and municipal education councils; councils, associations, school unions, pedagogical meetings and classes; the mechanisms of participation such as the municipal education plan, the development plan and the school pedagogical political project; in addition to course plans, classes, activities and pedagogical actions.

Overcoming the fractures and obstacles related to participation in the sense previously pointed out is an undeniable need. Thus, in the theoretical-practical line of what ^{Carvalho (2011)} pointed out, we need to understand that effectively democratic participation in social institutions – without disregarding the multiple and broad historical determinations of contemporary capitalist society – lacks fundamental conditions of a principled, political, communicational, organizational, ideological, cultural and material nature. In this regard, ^{Carvalho (2011)} points out six essential aspects or conditions for the realization of democraticparticipatory management in education, namely:

[...] 1) democratic principles - referring to transparency characterized by clarity and publicity in the administrative process, decentralization of decision-making [...], autonomy expressed in respect for the decisions of the councils and colleges, without losing sight of the competence of each segment, recognition of the pluralism of ideas and opinions, as well as a dialogue with the various forces that produce [education in general]; 2) political/administrative and/or pedagogical - which has to do with the form of organization, planning, execution, monitoring and evaluation of the educational process at the institutional level; 3) communicational - which covers the way in which the institution informs and dialogues with community members about the processes and results of educational work; 4) political/organizational/corporate - related to the aspects of interests of the various segments: organization, representativeness, strategy of action and participation; 5) ideological-cultural – referring to the institutional culture expressed, among other aspects, by the ideas, forms of organization, history and profile of its members, ways of acting, values and rules guiding social practices; 6) material and economic - related to the set of material resources and economic resources necessary for the development of human activity, including those related to the conditions necessary for community members to participate in the institution’s management process: financial resources for transportation and food; adequate spaces, time, among others

(^{CARVALHO, 2011}, p. 285-286).

Based on this statement by Carvalho and the set of reflections made previously, it is possible to affirm that the obstacles to the democratic management in the SMEs and Schools need to be dialectically problematized and faced in search of overcoming glimpsed as rearticulation that enables the unity of the diverse and that is organically potentiating of education in a broad, emancipatory, participatory-democratic sense that promotes autonomy and human disalienation. This is an important battle to be fought, as it makes it possible to compete for democratic-participatory management as an educational praxis, of interest to the public school and the working class with the conception of management based primarily on the management criteria of merit, demand, performance and control of immediately useful and applicable products that the owners and/or managers of productive capital most take an interest in.