As perceções dos diretores de turma sobre as suas funções e poderes

The approaches which rule power studies, namely the power relations and types of power, as well as their practice in organizations and politics, can be put into practice in applied to school organization. Our study on power in the school field is circumscribed to an intermediate pedagogical manager, the class director. Our study’s goal is to identify the structures in which the action of the class director is developed and to understand his perception on the effectiveness of his powers. This is a qualitative, ethnographic and (self) biographical study based on documentary research, participating observation and interview. The teachers' perceptions are linked to their profile and to technical and socioemotional skills required by the function’s exercise, the criteria under the function’s nomination, their importance in school life, the most valued functions and the tasks that keep them busy, the colleagues’ understanding of their action, reducing it mainly to disciplinary control and to the coordination of summative evaluation tasks, the sources of their power at school, and to the role of brief training courses to develop skills underlying their functions.