Tarcísio sends directors to attend teachers’ classes – 08/02/2023 – Education

The Tarcísio de Freitas government (Republicans) determined that directors of state schools in São Paulo must, starting this semester, attend at least two classes per week by teachers. They will have to produce a report on what they observe in the classroom.

An ordinance establishing the new attribution to directors was published in the Official Gazette last Friday (28). According to the document, they will have to produce a report, with what they observe of the teachers’ pedagogical practices and forward it to the region’s teaching board.

The ordinance does not explain what the teaching boards will do with the reports —whether they will analyze the observations made to each teacher or whether there will be some kind of penalty for those who do not receive good comments from the board.

The directors received a form in which they had to fill in the “positive points”, “points for improvement” and “agreements and next steps” for each class attended. They must observe the students’ interaction with the proposed activity, time management, methodology and resources used, form of communication and the classroom climate.

In a note, the Department of Education, led by Renato Feder, said that the measure aims to “strengthen the protagonism and autonomy of the educator in the classroom”. The folder also did not explain what will be done with the reports.

Teachers and directors of the state network say that the new determination can create a climate of vigilance within schools, in addition to overloading the direction with more attributions.

The ordinance determines that the “number of observations in the classroom, followed by a report, must be at least two per week”. In addition, directors must “cover as many teachers as possible throughout the academic two-month period”.

The director of a state school on the east side of the capital had 130 teachers in her unit. In order to be able to observe all the professors, she will have to spend more than 30 hours a week following the classes, not counting the time spent to prepare the report.

For her, the new determination disregards the reality and the type of work carried out by directors. She says that she provides pedagogical support and attends the classes of teachers who are having difficulty or ask for help, but says it is unnecessary to observe the class from the whole board.

Márcia Jacomini, a professor at Unifesp’s Department of Education, says that the measure imposes a logic of “business administration” within the school and removes the autonomy of both directors and teachers.

“There is no problem with the principal monitoring the teachers’ classes, and this is encouraged and already done in many schools. The problem is to make this a rule, with a frequency that disregards the principal’s activities, and still demand a report without explaining what will be done with it.”

“What could be pedagogical support ends up becoming one more obligation for the principal and one more reason for apprehension for the teacher. The rule gives the impression of surveillance in the classroom, which is not good for anyone”, says Márcia.

She also points out that pedagogical support, in general, works better with professionals in the same area of ​​knowledge and not necessarily with the director. “For example, the most experienced math teacher, with years of experience in his career, can help a newly graduated colleague much more than a director who has no training in the area.”

For the specialist, it is important that the secretariat clarify what will be done with the class report, since there are more than 200,000 teachers in the network’s schools. “Are they going to analyze everything or just give the director more work and disregard what they’ve done?”

Another teacher, from a state school in the south zone, pointed out that the format of the report sent does not include spaces for notes on situations that interfere in the classes, but are independent of the teacher. For example, the excess of students per room.

“By putting only the teacher’s pedagogical practice under analysis, the secretariat ignores and refrains from solving all the other problems that affect the classes. It places the responsibility on the teacher for everything that goes wrong in education”, says Márcia.

In a note, Seduc said that the ordinance aims to “ensure support for teachers with the greatest interaction and support through the pedagogical coordinator and directors of the school and school unit”.

“With the measure, pedagogical managers now have the indication of the minimum workload directed to monitor and assist teachers with themes inherent to the day-to-day of school activities, expanding the listening environment and evaluations of strategies to make the teaching process -learning to more effective students”, he says.

The folder also stated that the application of the rule will be carried out in accordance with the reality of each school.