Políticas e práticas da supervisão de ensino do estado de São Paulo

Abstract

The aim of this study - Supervising Teaching in the State of São Paulo – is set to understand the functions of teaching supervision as they are presented in the educational legislation and in the writings of theorists besides checking those practices carried out during the exercise of such function. The methodological procedure comprised the analysis of documents, special attention being directed to legislation in order to identify the political and historical route followed by the practice of supervision in the State of São Paulo; a questionnaire was submitted to teaching supervisors from an Education Directory at São Paulo (capital city), which expected to make the current attributions of this professional clear. Scholars in the field as Albuquerque (1990), Saviani (2003) and Silva Jr (2003, 2006) offered their views about how to evaluate education supervision in Brazil and particularly in the State of São Paulo. Based on researches made by further authors, Rangel (2002), Alarcão (2002), Alonso (2003), Ferreira (2003), Fernandes (2006), Muramoto (2006), an attempt to broaden the understanding of the role played by teaching supervision in the present context was intended. It was concluded that the political and administrative steps taken by São Paulo State Secretary of Education leading to a more integrative profile of education supervisors depict them as propounders and active performers of education policies, simultaneously playing the role of articulators and mediators between macropolicies and pedagogical propositions developed in the single school units. The attributions and competences of education supervisors, however, accord them a bureaucratic, technical and managerial profile, a far way removed from the political implications of their function.