In-service principals’ development in Brazil

Disconnection and insulation from international contemporary knowledge in education administration

Resumo

This study explores the public policy implemented by the Brazilian federal government for in-service school leaders’ development, in cooperation with state and local education systems, in order to improve school learning outcomes. It aims to investigate the content included in the post-graduate Diploma in School Management (DSM), related to international contemporary knowledge of education administration as presented in the literature. Public documents on the DSM programme, such as courses syllabi, content of instruction and references were analysed. The programme did not refer to any of the most quoted authors or the most quoted articles in the field. A displacement between the policy formulation and its implementation was observed. Disputes over programme conception was evidenced, prevailing a more insulated and local view on school management. Results show that the policy for school principals’ development in Brazil took very limited advantage of the contribution of research on educational leadership worldwide, despite research evidences showing that leadership practices share much more similarities than differences considering contexts.