SCHOOL MANAGEMENT AS A PRODUCER OF INSTITUTIONAL BELONGING OR SUFFERING: BETWEEN DEMOCRACY AND POWER RELATIONS IN THE CONTEMPORARY SCHOOL

Abstract

This article proposes a critical reflection on school management as a central element in the constitution of human interrelations, institutional bonds, and the organizational culture of the school context. It stems from the understanding that educational management is not limited to administrative, bureaucratic, and pedagogical processes, but directly operates in the production of belonging, recognition, and collective integration, while also being capable of triggering fragmentation, conflict, and institutional suffering. Drawing on established theoretical frameworks from education, sociology, and philosophy, it discusses the tensions between democratic management models and leadership practices marked by authoritarianism, political clientelism, and the hierarchization of human interrelations. Furthermore, the study analyzes how certain forms of management impact the organizational climate, the valuing of school workers, and the fulfillment of the educational institution's factual social function. It concludes that the ethical quality of the relationships established by school management directly influences the school's institutional health, as well as its capacity to establish itself as a democratic, humanized, and socially re-signified space.