Governança e gestão de redes educacionais: o impacto da Rede Jesuíta de educação básica do Brasil

Abstract

The last few decades have witnessed massive technological, social and economic transformations that have led to the emergence of new relationship models between people and institutions, which characterize the so-called Network Society. In this context, the development of inter-organizational networks has become a means of expanding the cooperation between institutions in order to respond to a highly competitive and constantly dynamic environment. Following this trend and in line with the global initiatives of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuit Education Network of Brazil (RJE) was established in 2014 to promote articulated work based on Ignatian educational identity and charisma. This study aims to analyse how the RJE's governance and management practices have impacted Jesuit schools and propose actions to improve the Network positive incidence. The methodology used was a case study, which was developed through documental analysis, quantitative data from an internal diagnosis, semi-structured interviews with school staff and participant observation of strategic moments in RJE's governance and management. Triangulation of data was chosen as the method of analysis in order to identify convergences and divergences between these different data sources. The findings revealed a non-centralized network with well-established governance and management mechanisms, which has strengthened the institutional identity and preserved a good level of the school autonomy. Among the challenges are high leadership turnover, administrative and financial flows and shared technology services. Finally, the study demonstrates the need to enhance sharing of good practices and develop actions towards pedagogical innovation. Based on these results, the study makes recommendations for improving the governance and management of the RJE. This research sought to establish evidence of the progress made in the first decade of the Jesuit Education Network, highlighting the main lessons learned, in order to inspire other networks and institutions with the same aspiration to transform society through education.