The thesis is aimed at studying the transformation process of ETEPA (Technical School of Pará State) in the 1980-2003 period. It analyses its origens as an Interschool Center in 1980, leaded by the State policies on professional education; and in the 1990 decade as the ETEMP in the context of several educational reforms carried out in the nineties. The analysis scope is restricted to the 1980-2003 period, because since then ETEPA has been changed to the special status of a Social Organization. The theoretical framework of the thesis is based on concepts of school culture, as developped by Magalhães (1999), Barroso (2007), and mostly by Viñao (2006). This historiographic approach is complemented by studies on schools policies carried out by Cunha (1975; 2000) and Warde (1979). The research methodology explored bibliographical sources through archival studies related to legal bylaws, Government resoluctions and decrees, institucional printouts, as well as articles published by the regional press. The data from the archival studies were complemented by interviews carried out with leading directors of the several administrations in the period, as well as with samples of faculty members and alumni. The data gathered by the research pinpoint many aspects of articulations and desarticulations, assynchronies and insuficiencies of the ETEPA´s institutional culture in relation to the national and regional policies on professional education. In such a context of uncertainty and dubiousness, it is stressed the role played by the faculty protagonism in shapping ETEPA´s institutional culture. However, this faculty protagonism reflects also several dimensions of resistence and inflexibility towards required institutional changes in the period.