The paradigm of democratic management of the school, as a critical Constitutional principle, going beyond the classic bureaucratic administration, as well as the neoliberal ideology of Minimal State, is problematized in this paper to analyze their prospects nowadays. This study was qualitative, seeking the latent content of reality (LÜDKE; ANDRÉ, 1986) and uses bibliographic research as a way to articulate the synthesis and analysis from the state of the art (MINAYO, 2000). It presents the appropriation and distortion of the concept of democratic management, carried out by neo-liberal educational policies (Bastos, 1999; LÜCK, 2006; LIBÂNEO, 2003). The research focuses on teaching pratice as a teaching management work (Gauthier, 1999), able to contribute to building of a democratic culture and autonomy in school.
Democratic management of the school; teaching work; leadership in school.