Parcerias público-privadas em educação: um estudo de caso do município de Pelotas

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes the role of private institutions in public education in the municipality of Pelotas, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, between the years 2017 and 2020, based on the consolidation of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs). Grounded in the theoretical-methodological perspective of historical-dialectical materialism and in critiques of New Public Management (NPM), the research investigated the meanings and impacts of these partnerships on the democratic management of schools, questioning the processes of privatization in public education. The qualitative, analytical-descriptive approach combined document analysis with the use of a database constructed by research groups on educational policies in Rio Grande do Sul, as well as methodological support inspired by Network Ethnography. The data revealed that the PPPs established by the municipality were primarily focused on teacher training, followed by management consultancy and the provision of early childhood education vacancies, with no PPPs identified in the area of didactic material acquisition. These partnerships were carried out by various types of private organizations. The findings indicate that such partnerships have contributed to the weakening of democratic management and to a reconfiguration of the role of the State, shifting public responsibilities to private agents under the argument of modernization and efficiency. It is concluded that PPPs operate as a structuring strategy of neoliberal rationality in basic education and pose risks to the universalization and social quality of the right to public education.