Something new under the sun in secondary school: a case study

Abstract

This paper reports on a case study carried out in an upper secondary school (grades 10-12), which for 17 years has established learning workshops, with interseriation and interdisciplinarity, as well as complementary distance learning. The establishment, located in the industrial City of Curitiba, Brazil, maintains agreements so that its students, electively, attend the technical education in the counter-term. The qualitative-quantitative methodology included documental analysis, observation, semi-structured interviews with principals, counselors, teachers and students and application of questionnaires to convenience samples of teachers and students. The results show that, according to social expectations, this school has become publicly different due to its methodologies and success in reconciling the preparation for higher studies and technical courses. Continuous assessment and parallel recovery reduce reprobation and abandonment to minimum levels. The predominant organizational image is that of the school as a company, with components of the bureaucratic model, to frame the innovations in the official molds, and the school’s image as culture. Implications of these organizational images are discussed.