Regular High School education in focus: t he analysis of the Institutional Educational Development Project (PDPI)

Abstract

Set under the perspective of school culture studies, this research focuses on high school education inserted under the process of implementation of a quality program. This article aims at investigating what is conceived as regular high school quality in the extent of state public education of Minas Gerais, on the process of implementation of the Institutional Educational Development Project (Projeto de Desenvolvimento Pedagógico Institucional – PDPI) as part of the Reference Schools Project (Projeto Escolas-Referência – PER) instituted by the government of Minas Gerais. This research has taken as scope two public schoo from the countryside of the State of Minas Gerais, which have presented conceptions about education quality connected to the way they have received and implemented the project. School is therefore understood as a self-organized instance towards the production of formal and informal rules, which are peculiar to social organizations. Under this point of view, school is seen on the range of social contradictions that sometimes hamper, and other times promote the educational project. The research has included the following proceedings: documentary analysis, interviews, observation. Through the analysis, it was clear that the school and its subjects confronted a series of mismanagements on the implementation of the PDPI, which turned the dreamed school into a nightmare. The results have revealed that the dream is undone before a project that rhetorically proposes itself to redeem “education quality” when that is still undefined.