SCHOOL MANAGEMENT IN DISPUTE: NEOLIBERAL RATIONALITIES AND THE SOCIO-CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE IN POLITICAL-PEDAGOGICAL PROJECTS

Abstract

Brazilian education has been shaped by historical, political, and economic transformations that directly affect school management. From the civil–military regime, characterized by an authoritarian, technocratic, and dualistic educational model, to the redemocratization process initiated in the 1980s, public schooling became permeated by discourses of democratization and citizenship. However, from the 1990s onward, in line with the global advance of neoliberalism, an educational rationality became hegemonic in Brazil, oriented toward the redefinition of the role of the State, the centrality of managerial efficiency, and results-based logic, significantly impacting the management of public schools and their Political- Pedagogical Projects (PPP). In this context, the study analyzes PPPs as arenas of dispute between neoliberal rationalities and the socio-critical perspective of education. The guiding research question is: how do neoliberal rationalities, hegemonized since the 1990s, and the socio-critical perspective manifest and confront each other in the construction and implementation of public school political-pedagogical projects? The general objective is to analyze this dispute based on the main legal and normative frameworks of Brazilian education. Methodologically, the research adopts a qualitative, bibliographic approach grounded in the analysis of normative documents. The results indicate that, although neoliberal rationality has gained centrality in school management, tensions, resistances, and critical reconfigurations persist. It is concluded that the PPP remains a strategic political- pedagogical instrument for defending a fair, democratic public school oriented toward comprehensive human development.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.56238/sevened2026.011-003