From Formulation to Implementation: School Management in the National Commitment Policy Every Mathematics

Jade Blanda Fonseca Saraiva; Marcos Cesar Rodrigues de Miranda

DOI: 10.22167/2675-6528-202603021

Article derived from a Final Course Work (TCC), with content based on the student’s original work and adapted to the editorial format of the E&S Magazine with the support of the ResumeAI tool, an artificial intelligence solution developed by the Pecege Institute for textual synthesis and organization.

Abstract

Brazilian education is a fundamental social right, but the participation of school managers and teachers in the initial phases of the educational public policy cycle has been restricted to implementation. This study analyzed how the participation of these actors in the initial stages of the educational public policy cycle contributed to strengthening the legitimacy, adherence, and effectiveness of the implemented actions, using the National Commitment to All Mathematics as a reference. Complementarily, the potential application of the policy’s axes in the municipal network of Rio de Janeiro was examined. A qualitative, exploratory, and analytical approach was adopted, based on documentary research of official sources from the Ministry of Education and a literature review on the public policy cycle and educational bureaucracy. An applied analysis of the municipal network of Rio de Janeiro was conducted, using public data on Mathematics learning. The results indicated that the national consultation subsidized the diagnosis and strengthened the initial legitimacy of the policy, although it assumed a predominantly consultative character, without effective insertion of teachers in decision-making spaces. School managers were positioned as strategic mediators of implementation. The applied analysis showed adherence between the policy’s structuring axes and the learning and equity challenges identified in the analyzed network, where only 48% of 5th-grade students and 18% of 9th-grade students reached an adequate level of Mathematics learning. It was concluded that expanding the consultation represented an advance, but limitations to the institutionalization of deliberative participation persisted, and the policy offers potential for local adaptation aimed at improving Mathematics learning and equity.

Keywords: Educational bureaucracy; Public policy cycle; Educational governance; Policy implementation; Teacher participation.

1. Introduction

Education in Brazil is recognized as a fundamental social right and an essential condition for the exercise of citizenship, as guaranteed by Article 205 of the 1988 Federal Constitution. In this context, educational public policies are configured as crucial instruments for the materialization of these rights, articulating actions aimed at transforming the school reality.

However, the path between the formulation of a policy and its effective arrival in schools is complex, permeated by tensions, disputes, and discontinuities. The public policy cycle, which encompasses the phases of agenda, formulation, implementation, and evaluation, rarely presents itself in a linear manner, with stages frequently overlapping, being interrupted, or undergoing reinterpretations in the face of complex realities (Souza, 2003; Wu et al., 2021).

It is in this scenario that the National Commitment All Mathematics is inserted, an educational public policy instituted by Decree No. 12,641, of October 1, 2025. This initiative aims to strengthen the guarantee of the right to learn Mathematics in Basic Education and constitutes the central object of this research, which analyzed the participation of school managers and teachers between the formulation and implementation stages of the policy.

Historically, within the scope of public educational policies, it is observed that school managers and teachers are called upon almost exclusively in the implementation phase, with limited participation in the initial stages of agenda setting and formulation. This absence causes both practical weaknesses, as policies often disregard the specificities of school realities, and political weaknesses, compromising the legitimacy of actions when their main executors do not recognize themselves as subjects of the process.

The literature on educational bureaucracy offers a lens to understand this dynamic. Lipsky (2010), in his work on street-level bureaucracy, argues that frontline bureaucrats are ultimately policymakers, as their daily actions shape the implemented policy. In the educational field, teachers can be understood as street-level bureaucrats, while school administrators act as strategic mediators between policy guidelines and their realization in the school context (Lotta, 2015; Oliveira & Abrucio, 2019).

The performance of these actors, by mediating guidelines and practices, implies a reinterpretation of public policy in schools, which highlights the importance of their participation since the formulation. Therefore, it is hypothesized that the inclusion of these actors in the initial phases of the public policy cycle could contribute to greater legitimacy, adherence, and effectiveness of actions, in addition to strengthening democratic management practices.

In the context of the National Commitment to All Mathematics, a relevant experience was the National Listening Session for Mathematics Teachers (MEC, 2025b), which mobilized over 57,000 Elementary and High School teachers in 4,118 municipalities and 24,165 schools. By adopting listening as a mobilization strategy, the policy signaled a move towards more participatory governance, creating space for teachers’ voices to influence the definition of policy priorities and strategies.

Thus, the present research analyzed how school managers and teachers were incorporated into the initial stages of the educational public policy cycle and to what extent this participation could contribute to strengthening the legitimacy and effectiveness of the implemented actions. With the aim of investigating this issue, the research objective was to analyze how the participation of school managers and teachers in the initial phases of the educational public policy cycle contributed to strengthening the legitimacy, adherence, and effectiveness of the implemented actions, taking as a reference the National Commitment All Mathematics, an initiative of the Ministry of Education. Complementarily, the potential application of the policy axes in the municipal network of Rio de Janeiro was analyzed.

2. Material and Methods

This research adopted a qualitative methodological approach, of an exploratory and analytical nature. The study was developed based on a retrospective documentary analysis of official sources, complemented by a bibliographic review and an applied analysis. This structure allowed for the investigation of the participation of school managers and teachers in the cycle of public educational policies, with a focus on the National Commitment “Toda Matemática”.

The documentary research was based on materials that had not received systematic analytical treatment, being reprocessed in light of the research objectives, according to Gil’s (1999) approach. The empirical object consisted of the institutional design and the official discourse of the National Commitment All Mathematics, as expressed in documents produced by the Ministry of Education.

Specifically, the strategies for teacher participation and mobilization, as well as the organization of policy governance in the initial phases of the public policy cycle, were analyzed. No territorial recorte was made for the analysis of the implementation of the National Commitment to All Mathematics, as the policy was in the initial phase of adherence by educational networks, without consolidated implementation in specific municipalities or states during the analyzed period.

Thus, the documentary analysis focused on the federal level of policy formulation, considering the territory as a destination space for guidelines, and not as an empirical locus for evaluating their implementation. The documentary corpus was composed of three central documents of the National Commitment “Toda Matemática”, publicly available from official Federal Government sources.

The analyzed documents were: (i) the Governance Guide (MEC, 2025a), which presented guidelines on local governance and the roles of actors; (ii) the National Commitment Booklet for All Mathematics (MEC, 2025c), with an overview of the policy and its axes; and (iii) Decree No. 12,641, of October 1, 2025 (Brazil, 2025d), which established the Commitment and set forth its principles and governance mechanisms.

The documents were analyzed in an articulated manner, with the Decree serving as the normative and institutional framework, and the Governance Guide and the Booklet detailing aspects of organization and operationalization. The analysis focused on the sections related to faculty participation strategies, governance organization, and the distribution of responsibilities among the actors involved in the different stages of the policy.

In complementarity to the documentary research, a bibliographic research was carried out to construct the theoretical framework that supported the analysis. This survey covered authors who discussed the public policy cycle, educational bureaucracy, and implementation processes, adopting the conception of the public policy cycle as a non-linear process (Wu et al., 2021).

The references of Lipsky (2010) and Cavalcanti, Lotta, and Pires (2018), who characterized the professor as a street-level bureaucrat, were mobilized. Complementarily, studies by Lotta (2019) and Oliveira and Abrucio (2019) situated the school principal as a middle-level bureaucrat, due to their role in mediating between the central and local levels of implementation.

In a complementary way, an exploratory applied analysis was carried out, taking the municipal network of Rio de Janeiro as a reference. The objective was to illustrate possibilities for applying the policy in a concrete educational context, seeking to establish relationships between the policy design and the challenges identified in the analyzed network.

The choice of the Rio de Janeiro municipal network considered its relevance as a large-scale network, with challenges in learning and equity in Mathematics. The scope of the applied analysis covered Elementary Education, initial and final years. For this purpose, public data on Mathematics learning from the Basic Education Evaluation System (SAEB/IDEB 2023) and data from the School Census (2025), systematized by the QEdu platform, were used.

Institutional information disclosed on official portals of the Rio de Janeiro Municipal Secretariat of Education was also used. This stage did not constitute an in-depth case study, but rather an analytical approximation based on secondary data and public information (SAEB/INEP, 2019).

3. Results and Discussion

This section presents and discusses the research findings, which analyzed the participation of school managers and teachers in the initial phases of the educational public policy cycle, using the National Commitment All Mathematics as a reference. Complementarily, the potential application of the policy’s axes in the municipal network of Rio de Janeiro was examined. The results indicate that, although the policy has promoted broader listening to teachers, effective participation in central decision-making processes remained limited, positioning managers and teachers predominantly as executors. The applied analysis, in turn, revealed a significant adherence between the policy’s structuring axes and the learning and equity challenges identified in the analyzed network.

Faculty participation in policy formulation

The analysis of official documents, especially the National Commitment to Mathematics Booklet, showed that the National Listening Session for Mathematics Teachers was presented as the inaugural milestone of the policy. This listening session was discursively mobilized as a central foundation for the legitimation of the initiative. The document characterized the process as broad and representative, highlighting its national scope, with the participation of over 57,000 elementary and high school teachers, distributed across 4,118 municipalities and 24,165 schools (MEC, 2025b).

This strategy contributed to the construction of a narrative of legitimacy and consensus around policy formulation. The use of faculty participation in this context dialogued with the conception of public policy formulation as a strategic and political process, in which the construction of consensus and legitimacy constitutes a fundamental element in the initial stages of the policy cycle (Wu et al., 2021). The results of this listening, therefore, supported the proposition of the program’s actions, conferring it an initial support base.

It was observed that the professor was represented as a subject possessing qualified knowledge about the reality of the classroom. This representation was repeatedly recognized, positioning the professor as one who directly experiences the challenges of teaching and learning in Mathematics. This perspective values the teacher’s practical experience, recognizing their expertise in daily school life and their ability to identify the needs and obstacles faced by students.

Despite this centrality attributed to the teaching experience, the discursive analysis indicated that participation was predominantly focused on the production of information and diagnosis, without extending to deliberative and decision-making processes related to the definition of strategic axes for public policy. This movement suggests that, although listening was relevant for qualifying the diagnosis and generating legitimacy, this relevance did not translate into an effective insertion of teachers in the actual formulation of policy actions.

This configuration dialogues with the literature on educational bureaucracy, which points to the distinction between consultative participation and effective decision-making capacity. In policies formulated in a centralized manner and implemented in complex federal contexts, such as Brazil, participation can be expanded at the consultative level, but decision-making mechanisms remain concentrated in the central policy instances, without the effective participation of street-level actors (Lotta, 2015; Oliveira & Abrucio, 2019).

Governance and Implementation of the National Commitment to All Mathematics

The analyzed documents structured the institutional arrangements of the National Commitment to All Mathematics based on the conception of federative collaboration. This structure foresees that the federative entities — Union, states, Federal District, and municipalities — act jointly to guarantee the universalization, quality, and equity of education, as established in the Federal Constitution of 1988 and the Law of Directives and Bases of National Education. The Commitment, in its institutional architecture, foresees national, state, and local instances to support the networks in implementing actions (MEC, 2025c).

Decree No. 12.641/2025, which established the Commitment, reinforces this conception by providing for the conjugation of efforts by the federative entities and assigning the Ministry of Education the coordination of the formulation, implementation, and monitoring of the policy in articulation with states, the Federal District, and municipalities (Brazil, 2025d). The Decree also established the voluntary adherence of the federative entities and the possibility of full or partial adherence to the actions, recognizing the specific needs of educational networks and territories. Thus, the normative language combined a coordinating and inducing function of the Union with the recognition of the autonomy and specificities of the subnational entities.

According to the Governance Guide (MEC, 2025a), the National Commitment All Mathematics presents a governance structure that aims at the planning, coordination, implementation, and monitoring of activities. In this arrangement, the National Union of Municipal Education Directors (UNDIME), the National Council of Secretaries of Education (CONSED), and the National Management Committee (COMAT) assume a strategic role in coordination and monitoring. The National Anchoring Network for the Implementation Strategy of the National Commitment All Mathematics (RENAMAT) and the State Strategic Committees reinforce the Union’s inductive function, mobilizing subnational entities for execution.

The Decree also assigns explicit relevance to school management, establishing systemic coherence between the management of the secretariats, school management, and classroom management as one of its principles. In the training axis, the policy provides for support for actions aimed at improving school management and pedagogical practices. In the evaluation axis, it establishes that the results of the evaluations should support the evolution of network policies, school management, and teachers’ pedagogical decision-making (Brazil, 2025d).

Although there is a formally defined governance design, the joint analysis of the Decree and the Governance Guide did not evidence the inclusion of teachers and school managers in the central deliberative instances of the policy. This indicates a separation between strategic decision-making spaces and execution spaces. In the analyzed material, teachers were predominantly associated with the pedagogical dimension of state action, being conceived as subjects to be trained, accompanied, and guided, based on the identification of gaps in their initial and continuing education.

This representation approximates the conception of street-level bureaucrats formulated by Lipsky (2010), in that their daily performance is recognized as central to the effectiveness of policy, but remains confined to the execution of previously defined guidelines. School managers, in turn, were positioned as strategic actors of local governance, responsible for articulating policies, mobilizing resources, monitoring pedagogical practices, and using evidence to guide decisions within networks and schools.

This mediating function of school managers approaches the concept of middle-level bureaucracy discussed by Lotta (2015) and by Oliveira and Abrucio (2019). These actors are held responsible for translating national guidelines into concrete actions in the local context, even though they do not directly participate in the central policy formulation spaces. In summary, the policy expanded teacher participation in the initial phases of the cycle, especially in agenda setting and diagnosis production, but this openness was not extended equally to the governance structure and central decision-making processes.

Applied analysis: learning in mathematics in the municipal network of Rio de Janeiro

With the aim of bringing documentary analysis closer to educational reality, learning data in Mathematics from the municipal network of Rio de Janeiro were examined, based on public information from SAEB/IDEB of 2023, systematized by the QEdu platform. The analysis is exploratory and illustrative in nature, seeking to identify possibilities for applying the policy in a concrete educational context, based on available data and public initiatives disclosed by the network itself.

The data evidenced a challenging scenario, marked by low learning levels and significant inequalities among student groups. In the initial years of Elementary School, it was observed that 48% of students in the network achieve an adequate level of learning in Mathematics. This percentage is slightly higher than the national average, which is 44%, but still far from a satisfactory level for this stage.

In the final years of Elementary School, the situation worsens, with only 18% of 9th-grade students showing adequate learning in Mathematics. This data highlights a significant drop in performance throughout the school trajectory, indicating the need for more robust and continuous interventions to reverse this scenario and guarantee the right to learning at all stages of Basic Education.

Furthermore, the data revealed relevant inequalities, such as the difference between Black students, of whom 37% reach an adequate level of learning, and White students, with 54% at this same level, according to data from SAEB/INEP (2019). This dimension of equity dialogues directly with Decree No. 12,641/2025, which establishes educational equity as a principle of the Commitment and explicitly states the confrontation of regional, socioeconomic, ethnic-racial, and gender inequalities among its guidelines (Brazil, 2025d).

The Decree also determines that socioeconomic, ethno-racial, and gender characteristics be considered among the criteria for prioritizing the Union’s assistance, reinforcing that the improvement of learning in Mathematics must be associated with the reduction of inequalities (Brazil, 2025d). In this context, the structuring axes of the National Commitment “Toda Matemática” (All Mathematics) appear potentially aligned with the network’s needs, as they articulate central dimensions for improving learning.

For this applied analysis, four of the five structuring axes foreseen in the National Commitment All Mathematics were considered: governance and management; professional development for education professionals; curriculum guidance; and learning assessment. Considering the federative nature of the policy, its axes are not expected to be reproduced in an integral and uniform manner in all education networks, as their implementation presupposes adaptations to the characteristics, needs, and initiatives already existing in each territory.

In the case of the Rio de Janeiro municipal network, it was observed that the identified challenges and opportunities find correspondence mainly in these four axes, evidencing a significant convergence between national guidelines and the local context, even though there is no complete mirroring of the policy. The Rio de Janeiro municipal network already has initiatives aimed at strengthening Mathematics education, such as the Rio Capital da Matemática project, which seeks to engage teachers, managers, and students around the subject, promoting training actions and mobilization strategies.

In synergy with the structuring axes of the National Commitment “Toda Matemática”, action possibilities were identified for the municipal network of Rio de Janeiro. In the governance and management axis, the need for greater articulation between existing initiatives is evident, with a clearer definition of instances responsible for pedagogical monitoring and coordination of actions. This would allow for the optimization of resources and efforts, avoiding the fragmentation of initiatives and strengthening the strategic management of educational policy in the network.

In the training axis for education professionals, existing initiatives can be enhanced through greater alignment with evaluation data and the concrete demands of schools, especially regarding the teaching of Mathematics in the initial and final years. Continuing education, when more contextualized and evidence-based, tends to be more effective in improving pedagogical practices and the professional development of teachers.

On the curricular orientation axis, there is room for improvement in coherence between stages and for strengthening the development of more complex competencies. A curricular review that promotes articulation between the different years of Elementary School and emphasizes critical thinking and problem-solving skills can significantly contribute to the improvement of Mathematics learning.

Finally, on the learning assessment axis, the more systematic use of data can contribute to guiding pedagogical decisions and strengthening teacher planning. The use of diagnostic and formative assessments, combined with the analysis of large-scale results, allows for the identification of learning gaps and the adjustment of teaching strategies more precisely and effectively, directly benefiting students.

The identified opportunities appear to be interrelated and can act systemically to improve Mathematics learning, with the potential to qualify pedagogical work in schools and strengthen the role of school management in mediating between public policy and educational practice. This perspective dialogues with the principle of systemic coherence foreseen in the Decree, by presupposing articulation between network management, school management, and practices developed in the classroom (Brazil, 2025d).

The identified convergence does not presuppose the full reproduction of the national design at the local level, but it highlights how the axes of the Commitment can guide and strengthen existing initiatives, respecting the specificities of the network. Networks that already present structured initiatives in this area, as is the case of Rio de Janeiro, which has called itself “Rio – Capital of Mathematics”, have the potential for convergence with the axes of the National Commitment “Toda Matemática”, which can contribute to the improvement of learning outcomes in Mathematics, while at the same time favoring the reduction of educational inequalities, especially those related to ethnic-racial factors.

In summary, the research demonstrated that the National Commitment All Mathematics, by incorporating teacher feedback in the initial stages, advanced in the legitimization of the policy. However, participation remained predominantly consultative, without effective insertion in the decision-making processes, which limits the potential contribution of teachers and school administrators. The analysis applied in the municipal network of Rio de Janeiro, in turn, revealed a strong adherence between the policy’s axes and the local challenges of learning and equity, indicating a promising path for the adaptation and implementation of the policy in specific contexts, aiming to improve mathematics education.

4. Conclusion

This research analyzed how the participation of school managers and teachers in the initial phases of the educational public policy cycle, taking the National Commitment All Mathematics as a reference, contributed to strengthening the legitimacy, adherence, and effectiveness of the implemented actions, and examined its potential application in the municipal network of Rio de Janeiro. It was found that the National Listening of Mathematics Teachers subsidized the diagnosis and strengthened the initial legitimacy of the policy. However, it was observed that this participation was predominantly consultative, without effective insertion of teachers in central decision-making spaces, and school managers were positioned as strategic mediators of implementation. The analysis applied in the municipal network of Rio de Janeiro showed a significant adherence between the policy’s structuring axes and the local challenges of learning and equity in Mathematics, where only 48% of 5th-grade students and 18% of 9th-grade students reached an adequate level. This convergence indicates a promising path for local policy adaptation, aiming to improve learning and equity.

As limitations of the study, the documentary nature of the research was highlighted, focused on the institutional discourse of the guiding materials of the Ministry of Education, and the recent institution of the policy, which did not allow its results and impacts to be evaluated in implementation contexts. The analysis applied in the municipal network of Rio de Janeiro, of an exploratory nature, also did not allow an in-depth examination of the institutional arrangements and local implementation processes. It is suggested that future studies investigate the effects of the policy on the networks that adhered to the initiative, especially regarding the evolution of learning indicators and the reduction of educational inequalities. It is also recommended to analyze the processes of implementation and adaptation of the policy to different local contexts, as well as to investigate how different participation arrangements of school managers and teachers influence its effectiveness.

Bibliographic References

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