A gestão escolar em tempos de burocracia eletrônica: um estudo em centros estaduais de educação profissional do Rio Grande do Norte

Abstract

This dissertation aims to analyze the interrelations between the use of digital platforms, school bureaucracy, and the autonomy of school management in the State Centers for Professional Education of Rio Grande do Norte Professora Djanira Brasilino de Souza and Professora Lourdinha Guerra (2023–2024). The research was based on the perspective of historical-dialectical materialism. For data collection and production, bibliographic and documentary research was conducted, as well as semi-structured interviews. The interviews were carried out with three subjects from the management teams elected for the 2023–2025 triennium of the two CEEPs studied, in order to discuss the interviewees’ work in relation to the use of digital platforms. In the scope of Professional Education in Rio Grande do Norte, such use occurs mainly through official systems, such as Sistec, SIGEduc, and PDDE Interativo, which structure school management and administrative processes. The results show that there are contradictions regarding the role of technological innovations in the field of school management; that the interviewees point to elements of hyperbureaucratization, materializing capital strategies aligned with neoliberal trends; that, although platforms are tools that support management, they also reinforce the individualization, control, and centralization of decision-making processes; and that the difficulties reported by the managers of the schools studied reflect the principles of New Public Management (NPM) and neoliberal globalization, which prioritize results-based management to the detriment of more humanized and emancipatory educational practices. The study concludes that the interrelations between digital platforms and school bureaucracy have occurred under the dominant logic of capital, under the principles of NPM, which compromises the already limited autonomy of school management in the studied CEEPs; and that the tension between the discourse of modernization and the reality of centralization and control of administrative processes affects the assurance of valuing collective participation, the continuous professional development of managers from a democratic-participatory perspective, and the strengthening of school autonomy, which are essential for a truly democratic management aligned with the principles of emancipatory education.