Improve Public Education in the State of Rio de Janeiro: Ideas and Proposals by School Principals

Author(s):

Esther Lück(presenting / submitting)Sandra Mariano(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

10. Teacher Education Research

Format:

Poster

Session Information

10 SES 04.5 PS, General Poster Session

General Poster Session

Time:

2017-08-23

12:00-13:30

Room:

W4.corridor (Poster Area)

Chair:

Contribution

Brazilian education policies have been aligned with state reforms since 1990, following changes in the global economy. Education policies incorporated public management methodologies based on efficiency criteria and strategic planning. In addition, it leads to the dissemination of education reform emphasizing efficacy, accountability, quality assurance and assessment. Several countries have shaped the education sector in different ways. Uljens et al. (2012) emphasize that the on-going shifts indicates the tendency of welfare states to assume mutual positive effects between economic growth, welfare, political and cultural citizenship, and the state having a central role. Considering that principals have a great role to play in this context, research with focus on school leadership has increased, like studies lead by Moos (2011), Day (2011), among others. In terms of the roles of principals, Day, Gu and Sammons (2016) underlined that the capacity to understand and make a precise diagnosis of the school’s needs and abilities to articulate and organize context-sensitive strategies contributes significantly to school improvement and effectiveness over time. Therefore, the focus of this study is related to school principals and their perception of the most important problems they face in the school that was chosen to be addressed as the final academic project presented as a requirement to finish the MBA on Education Leadership and Management. The MBA is an 18 months certificate program offered by Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This Program initiated in 2012 as part of state government policy in Rio de Janeiro to increase education quality in teaching and learning in their schools. Until 2016, 2.751 students participated in the program. A triple partnership gave official support to this program: the state government of Rio de Janeiro offered the agreement, the Federation of Industries of Rio de Janeiro provided financial support, and UFF, through the Department of Management and Entrepreneurship, undertook the academic responsibility to design and develop the MBA (Costa e Silva, Mariano and Cerqueira, 2013). The main objective of the MBA is to offer consistent knowledge by connecting management and leadership theory constructs and applying it to the schools. Initial professional teacher education in Brazil does not include this kind of knowledge as shown by Gatti (2002), Lück (2014) and Mariano et al. (2016). The school environment is complex by nature. The team responsible for school administration has a daily routine filled with problems, having to deal with a wide variety of issues. Faced with a multitude of problems, which should be addressed first? How does one lead unmotivated teachers and students? How can parents be encouraged to become more involved in the academic lives of their children? How can the community engage in partnerships with the school? How can the school neighborhood as well as the broader community become an educational environment? These themes, discussed in the various courses of the program, were also addressed in proposals presented as Entrepreneurship Plans. Each participant presented an intervention proposal – a concrete and specific plan to improve the quality of education at his or her school. Principals were able to learn methodological foundations and processes to decide what kinds of action needed to be done, and elect priorities (GATTI, 2002; GAME, 2011; Moos, 2011; Luckesi, 2012). In addition, teacher professional development became a topic strongly related to multiple evaluation processes (Bellochio, 2004; Cunha, 2004; Moos, 2011; Morgado, 2011; Pacheco, 2004; Roldao, 2005; Sordi, 2009). The purpose of this study was to analyze the topics presented as capstone projects in order to identify the main problems encountered by public school principals.

Method

The participants of this investigation comprised 345 schools principals who finished the MBA in 2016, representing 86% of the enrolled population, and who showed interest in learning and contributing with their ideas to improve public education in State of Rio de Janeiro. As suggested by Minayo (2010), the method used was lexical analysis, based on counting the frequency of words and expressions that have relevance or significance for the study’s objectives. According to Minayo (2010), the frequencies allow to consolidate the application of a theme, which in turn is possible to situate the context of the ideas brought by the word and expression used in the text to be analyzed. In each final project present by a principal we identified all the relevant words and expressions that described the problems and the solutions proposed by the principals. After putting this word or expression in alphabetic order, it was possible to identify the extension of relevant issues focused by the intervention proposals. Subsequently, a deeper analysis was made in order to group the identified words and expressions into categories that represent a consistent classification of themes. Each project could be located in more than one category. The study found six main categories, i.e. teaching innovations; use of teaching technology; improving school performance; continued development of teachers; school planning; and relationship between the school, the family and the community. Finally, we counted how many times each category appeared in order to find the distribution frequency and identify how principals see what the most evident problems are and concentrate their efforts to improve the quality of education at their schools. Through this study we were able to identify the crucial problems of the quality of State of Rio de Janeiro’s education.

Expected Outcomes

Findings from this research indicate that principals are concerned about the need for teachers to prepare more attractive lectures and diversify the teaching methodology with different ways of dealing with content to motivate students to learn, to become interested in studying, to see meaning in learning. Of the 345 projects presented, 66% asserted that it is urgent to invest in teaching innovations. Following, appears the use of teaching technology, with 39.6%. They felt that teachers do not know how to use teaching technology effectively, e.g. more use of available learning objects/games, and mastering construction techniques to develop new objects, although many schools are already equipped with information technology resources. The proposals that intended to improve school performance, 39.6% mentioned performance improvement in Mathematics and Portuguese, reading, writing and text interpretation among the most frequent concerns. The concern about continuous development of teachers and actions involving school planning, made up 30%, and relationship between the school, the family and the community was also a concern of the principals, with 28.9%. It became evident that the topics focused on the need for changes in the school organization processes and in the teaching practice, which go beyond the changes that still need to be achieved in the teacher’s working conditions, salary, etc. The lack of more effective methodologies and management practices and the lack of college preparation to face the great issue evidenced in the evaluations, namely the poor quality of the education offered, dominated the Plan topics. The themes covered most often maintained a similar distribution, regardless of work title, location or size of the schools. This sample suggests that principals seem to understand that the greatest challenge to improving education is the promotion of better ways to teach, to empower and involve the teacher, and to interact with the community.

References

BELLOCHIO, Claudia Ribeiro et al. 2004. Profissão docente: algumas dimensões e tendências. Revista do Centro de Educação, Santa Maria: UFSM, v.19, no. 2, 2004. Available at: http://coralx.ufsm.br/revce/revce/2004/02/a2.htm COSTA E SILVA, Fabiane; MARIANO, Sandra R. H.; CERQUEIRA, Joana D’Arc. 2013. Formação empreendedora de diretores de escolas. In: Anais do EnANPAD, 37. Rio de Janeiro, 2013, 13 p. Available at: http://www.anpad.org.br/admin/pdf/2013_EnANPAD_EPQ1799.pdf DAY, C., et al. (2011). Successful school leadership: linking with learning and achievement. Berkshire: McGraw Hill. DAY, CHRISTOPHER, GU, Q and SAMMONS, P, 2016. The impact of leadership on student outcomes: how successful school leaders use transformational and instructional strategies to make a difference. Educational Administration Quarterly. 52(2), 221-258 GATTI, Bernadete 2002. Avaliação educacional no Brasil. EccoS Rev. Cient, UNINOVE, v. 4, n. 1, p.17-41, July 2002. GRUPO DE AVALIAÇÃO E MEDIDAS EDUCACIONAIS (GAME) 2011. Avaliação externa como instrumento da gestão educacional nos estados – Relatório final. Belo Horizonte: UFMG, 2011. Available at : http://www.fvc.org.br/pdf/relatorio-avaliacoes-externas.pdf LÜCK, Esther Hermes; PINHO, Fernando. 2014. A voz dos professores: contribuições para projetos de formação inicial e continuada de professores. Seminário Estadual da ANPAE-RJ, 4. Niterói, April 24-26, 2014. 18p. LUCKESI, Cipriano Carlos 2012. Educação, avaliação e inovação – II. Brasília: MEC/INEP, 2012. (Textos para Discussão, 37). MARIANO, Sandra R.H.; COSTA-E-SILVA, F.; MORAES, J. 2016. Brazil: Leadership in Brazil, In , In Arlestig, H., Day, C., & Johansson, O. (ed.), A Decade of Research on School Principals: Cases from 24 Countries. Springer. ISBN 978-3-319-23026-9. Chapter 21. P. 445-469. MINAYO, Maria Cecília de Souza, 2010. O desafio do conhecimento: pesquisa qualitativa em saúde. 12th ed. São Paulo: Hucitec, 2010. MOOS, Leif; JOHANSSON, Olof; DAY, Christopher, 2011. How school principals sustain success over time: international perspectives. London: Springer, 2011. (Studies in Educational Leadership, v.14) MORGADO, José Carlos. Identidade e profissionalidade docente: sentidos e (im)possibilidades, 2011. Ensaio: aval. pol. publ. Educ., Rio de Janeiro, v. 19, n. 73, p.793-812, Oct/Dec 2011. Available at: http://www.scielo.br/pdf/ensaio/v19n73/04.pdf  PACHECO, José Augusto, 2004. A (difícil) construção da profissionalidade docente. Revista do Centro de Educação, UFSM, v.29, n.2, 4p., 2004. Available at: http://coralx.ufsm.br/revce/revce/2004/02/a1.htm ULJENS, Michael et al. 2012. The professionalization of Nordic school leadership – a challenge to teacher professionalism? 40th Nordic Research Association Congress. Copenhagen, March 8-10, 2012.

Author Information

Esther Lück (presenting / submitting)

Universidade Federal Fluminense

Information Science

Niteroi

Sandra Mariano (presenting)

Universidade Federal Fluminense

Entrepreneurship and Management