Autonomy and management in the school from the discourse about core educational policy in Argentinean secondary education

Resumen

This paper presents the results of a research that studied the effects of a policy designed to promote school autonomy management for secondary schools in the Province of Cordoba, Argentina. The project was implemented by the Provincial Ministry of Education, which promoted specific actions, through the ”Project for the Promotion of School Autonomy” (PPAE), which
articulated a discourse of greater autonomy to educational institutions, resourcing and accountability mechanisms that introduced new school management techniques. Management through projects is seen as one of the main mechanisms of regulation and focalization of resources in the educational system, from which it is promoted a type of autonomy that shifts
responsibility to schools and legitimizes new forms of control. The paper analyzes the concept of autonomy that underlies these policies, presents the case under study and discusses the meaning attributed to PPAE by stakeholders.