From the 1980's, school culture became the focus of debates on the urgent need of constructing a school capable of housing the diversity of the school-age population of this country, in order to face up to school failure and to resolve the problem of illiteracy and the inequalities of access to the cultural goods of humanity. Amongst the alternatives proposed, the organization of the school in cycles became one of the alternatives presented by the most daring proposals for changing that culture. This text discusses part of this issue, posing the following question: would the change in the organization of school work from series to school cycles be the alternative for facing up to school failure in the public school? We take as our starting point research carried out in the municipal school network of Belo Horizonte on the process of implanting and implementing the political-pedagogical project Plural School, in evidence since 1995. The research which supports these reflections discusses practical experiences of implementing the organization of schools in cycles and the difficulties and challenges posed by the working conditions in a network which decided to alter the organization of work in the whole system at the same time.
Plural School; cycles of formation