Educator increases the power of young voices in school management – 01/07/2024 – Education

At a meeting at EMEI Dona Leopoldina, in the west of São Paulo, a parent questioned the school management about the delay in deciding whether the toy day would continue or not. “The child council is still deliberating on the topic”, explained then director Marcia Harmbach.

She was referring to the group of students, aged 4 to 6, who had been chosen by their colleagues and teachers to participate in school management. That day, the topic involved challenges about sharing toys — some children brought expensive games that others did not have access to, which generated frustration.

Sitting in a circle, the counselors expressed what they felt with the mediation of a teacher. From the conversation, a solution came up: only bring “toys that you can’t buy”, made with elements of nature or school supplies such as paper airplanes, leaf canoes or twig dolls.

The idea, suggested by one of the children, was supported by the other child representatives. After being shared with the school council — made up of adults — it became a rule.

The episode illustrates how the management model created by Harmbach works, which was applied in the schools he spent 37 years in the SP municipal education network. The former director organized these experiences in the book “Gestão Democrática”, published by Panda Educação in 2023.

In the work, the educator shares other school challenges solved with the help of children, such as choosing a nap time, permission to climb trees or which toy to add to the park.

Harmbach was inspired by Paulo Freire, with whom he worked at the education department in the late 1980s, to create the junior councils. The project, she says, is based on the idea that it is not possible to build a democratic school without the participation of everyone who works there, especially children.

“The child council qualifies children’s perspectives on an equal basis with adults in decision-making”, defines the educator. “It is a strategy of dialogue and respect for children’s voices that guarantees a positive transformation in the school.”

The educator sees the children’s participation not as a concession from the management, but as a way of respecting the rights of the little ones. Interest in listening is not enough, she says, it is necessary to need children.

EMEI Dona Leopoldina, an institution where Harmbach worked for ten years as director, became a model school. She won eight awards for her political pedagogical project, which is centered on active listening to children by the child council.

Even school infrastructure benefited. The children contributed ideas for the park, such as a colorful bamboo toy and a mini running track.

“Today it is a school made for children”, explains Harmbach, who retired in 2022. Before, the institution did not have an environment designed with and by children, such as the use of playful furniture spread across the courtyard.

But not everything was rosy when it came to implementing the management model. The biggest difficulty, according to the educator, was the adults. When children started talking about school, there was discomfort among educators and families.

Adults thought that 4- and 6-year-olds just imitated or responded to what their elders wanted to hear. But, for the educator, children had their own way of seeing the world, formulated hypotheses and found solutions.

“If we listened more to students, we would have happier, more affectionate and more effective schools in terms of teaching and learning and building knowledge. But many educational institutions are swamped by bureaucracy,” she says.

In the public servant’s opinion, there is a lack of public policy that guarantees the effective participation of children and young people in school management. Junior councils, with their positive results, can be a way forward.

When the preschool students who participated in the councils go to elementary school, they maintain the idea of ​​questioning the management’s stances and the school’s spaces.

“Teachers from other schools that receive our children are amazed at how the students express their desires and their power of argument”, says the former director. She sees the project as an opportunity for children to become questioning, critical, empathetic and demand their rights and improvements for schools.

“When children are invited to participate in decisions that concern them, they build autonomy when thinking and organizing their ideas”, he explains.

Today, Dona Leopoldina has the council’s activities at a standstill, but plans to resume the model of junior councils, according to Aline Neves, the new director who took office in 2023.

Even with the council at a standstill, the school maintains the habits of active listening in corridors, classrooms and parks, established by Harmbach.