A direção de turma e a melhoria da gestão pedagógica e curricular da escola

The school autonomy is valued mainly on legislation and on political discourse about schools and teachers. This autonomy defines the means to locally contextualize the centrally defined policies, but the implementation of these policies depends on the training and empowerment of school managers. This paper presents an organizational improvement project of an elementary and secondary school in the district of Oporto, whose aim is the delegation and appropriation of decision skills by a set of class head teachers in the organization of the teaching process. The study methodology is part of a qualitative paradigm and uses the techniques of participant observation, document analysis produced at school and a focus group with class head-teachers of the 5th and 7th grades. The study aims to understand the dynamics of empowerment of class head teachers on the organization of the teaching process based on contiguous classes. Provisional results indicate a further seizure by the class head teachers involved in the project concerning the articulation of curriculum management, the flexibility of student groups and the focus of the collaborative work of teachers in the organization and management of the educational process. The results also suggest the development of their management skills people, activities and material resources as well as to establish a more cooperative relationship between top management and middle management, with a positive impact on the school climate.