SCHOOL MANAGEMENT AND EQUITY IN EDUCATION: POLICIES, PRACTICES, AND IMPLICATIONS FOR REDUCING EDUCATIONAL INEQUALITIES

Abstract

School management plays a role in organizing educational systems and implementing practices aimed at equity in basic education, especially in contexts marked by social, economic, and cultural inequalities. In Brazil, this role is supported by legal frameworks that assign pedagogical, administrative, and inclusive responsibilities to school management. Therefore, this study analyzes school management, highlighting policies, practices, and implications for reducing educational inequalities. This is an integrative literature review, with a qualitative approach and exploratory-descriptive character, conducted in December 2025. Searches were conducted in the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), CAPES Periodicals Portal, and institutional repositories, using controlled descriptors (DeCS/MeSH) in Portuguese and English, combined with Boolean operators AND and OR. Full articles published between 2020 and 2026, available in full and aligned with the study's objective, as well as government documents, were included. Duplicate productions, narrative reviews, and studies that did not answer the guiding question were excluded. The final sample consisted of fifteen studies, including three government documents. The results indicate that school management plays a strategic role in mediating between public policies and pedagogical practices, directly influencing institutional organization, resource allocation, strengthening the participation of the school community, and the implementation of inclusive actions. It is evident that school leaders with training focused on equity favor pedagogical practices sensitive to diversity, promote more accessible school environments, and contribute to reducing inequalities in access, retention, and learning for students. The analysis also reveals limitations in the effective application of educational policies, resulting from institutional weaknesses, gaps in the training of managers, and difficulties in addressing local demands. Therefore, it is concluded that the achievement of educational equity depends on the intentional action of school management, the consolidation of leadership committed to social justice, and the transformation of normative guidelines into concrete practices in the daily life of schools.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.56238/sevened2026.004-025