MANAGEMENT AND EXPERIENCE OF FRANCISCAN PRINCIPLES AND VALUES AT THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION SCHOOL: UTOPIA OR REALITY IN THE 21st CENTURY?

Abstract

This article presents a part of the master’s thesis entitled “Franciscan principles and values in times of liquid society: the strategic planning of the Escola Franciscana Imaculada Conceição - Dourados-MS”, linked to the Postgraduate Program in Education and Interculturality at the Universidade Católica Dom Bosco (UCDB). The objective was to identify how managers and teachers develop strategic planning in order to guarantee Franciscan principles and values in the face of the “liquid society”, according to Bauman (2005). In this article, an excerpt from the aforementioned dissertation is presented, the intention of which is to verify, through the Discussion Group methodology, how the Franciscan principles and values, which make up the School’s Strategic Planning, are experienced in pedagogical practice by the different characters who work at the Immaculate Conception Franciscan School. Namely, we seek to verify whether such principles and values present themselves as utopia or reality, in this 21st century, in the daily strategic planning of managers and in the pedagogical practice of teachers at that school. Finally, the testimonies of the participants in the discussion group show that the experience and testimony of Franciscan principles and values contributed to the students’ formation process, making them more autonomous, ethical and protagonists of a more human formation and action.