The aim of this thesis is to design and develop a polyphonic reanalysis instrument for analysis of school cultures, as a part of the efforts to understand and develop schools as organizations. The purpose of the new instrument is to achieve an extended possibility to highlight the values and motives underlying a school´s everyday work from the actors´ micro-oriented perspective. The concept of school culture refers to Gunnar Berg and his school development strategy of scope for action, which in turn can be understood as an empirically grounded development of Gerhard Arfwedson´s concept of school codex.  The new instrument is intended to complement these two existing and long-established analytical instruments. School development is an ambiguous concept, open to different explanation and interpretation, depending on the choice of perspectives and approaches. Christopher Hodgkinson emphasizes the difficulty in conceptualizing a discussion of the motives and values held by members of an organization. It is all about subjective concepts, the meanings of which vary, depending on the situation and the context in which they are observed. A central issue in organizations is how to reconcile the organization’s nomothetic and idiographic aspirations and structures. In school organizations the problem can be understood as the dialectical interaction between institutional and organizational values. In order to provide the kind of empirical knowledge of school development that is called for, an analytical tool is required that can capture both individual and organizational and institutional aspects of the school's everyday work. My empirical evidence is drawn from cultural analysis of schools in three municipalities and municipal districts. In the reanalysis, the emerging common features were lack of continuity in school leadership and the expectations of school leaders as educational leaders to participate more actively in the everyday work. The frequent changes of directors, was by many perceived as an inhibiting and counterproductive obstacle to sustainable school improvement. The results also showed significant differences in the schools' organizational structures of formal and informal decision-making. Knowledge of the underlying patterns that affect the school's everyday work can probably be used to make the organization more transparent and malleable. The dialectical interplay between the organization and its nomothetic-idiographic aspirations differs from school to school. The driving forces in the members’ collective action clarify the relationship between the organization and its members' goals. In-depth knowledge of actors' behavior and attitudes in the context of this interaction increases the possibility of real school development on pedagogical terms to the pupils' benefit. In conclusion: The polyphonic culture assay is still an underdeveloped area. Access to the polyphonic school culture will hopefully be the starting-point for the challenge to increase new and exciting empirical knowledge of the daily work at school.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T13:32:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Maria Cecilia de Vilhena Moraes Silva.pdf: 1246481 bytes, checksum: b36c2aeff72f55fcdd6467b0a7b3dc27 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-06-16 / Since they were created, psychological tests have been used in different contexts to support decisions that affect the life of many people. If they are to be used properly, it is critical to know both their underlying theoretical assumptions and their limitations. This thesis aims to bring to light such assumptions and to demonstrate that psychological tests , as a generic label, is not suited for the broad array of psychological assessment techniques available today. Based on the work of Pierre Bourdieu, who considers scientific knowledge as a social activity and the conformation of scientific fields as stemming from the configuration of the forces that conform it in a given historical period, this thesis investigates the trajectory of Alfred Binet and Francis Galton, two important actors of the psychological assessment field, considering the personal, social and historical context of their work, and the influence of their contributions to the subsequent conformation of this field. The differences between projective techniques and psychometrical tests are highlighted and the implications of considering both as psychological tests for the conformation of the psychological assessment field in Brazil, today, are discussed. A few issues regarding the education of qualified psychologists for the proper use of these techniques are also considered / Desde sua criação, os testes psicológicos têm sido usados em diferentes contextos, subsidiando decisões que afetam a vida de muitas pessoas. Seu uso adequado tem, como condição fundamental, o conhecimento de seus pressupostos teóricos e de suas limitações. O objetivo deste trabalho é explicitar tais pressupostos e demonstrar que o rótulo genérico testes psicológicos é inadequado para abrigar a diversidade de instrumentos do exame psicológico existentes. Com base em Pierre Bourdieu, considera-se o conhecimento científico como uma atividade social, sendo a conformação de um campo científico decorrente da configuração das forças que o compõem e de seus respectivos pesos em um dado momento histórico. Procura-se recuperar a trajetória de Alfred Binet e de Francis Galton, dois dos principais atores do campo do exame psicológico, abordando o contexto pessoal, social e histórico em que desenvolveram suas obras, e a influência de suas ideias na conformação posterior do campo. A partir disso, procura-se diferenciar técnicas projetivas e testes psicométricos, discutir as implicações de considerá-los sob o mesmo rótulo na conformação do campo do exame psicológico no Brasil de hoje e apontar aspectos importantes da formação do psicólogo para o uso adequado desses instrumentos