This work aimed at testing a method of evaluation of public schools through drawings and to reflect on its applicability to the understanding of psychosocial phenomena taking place in the school's realm. We assume that verbal language tends to favor those social norms which are more influential in the academic milieu and away, which is detrimental to the expression of individuals and groups who adopt other norms thought to be less legitimate and/or socially unrecognized. The participants were elementary and high school students of public schools in the city of Rio de Janeiro. They made a drawing of the school in which they study at and, following, one indoor drawing of it and, finally, they described the drawings they had just made. We verified a tendency to value positively the school's image and less involvement in typical activities of teaching and learning. The drawings of the school pointed to the necessity of a group dynamic work in order to place the students in the school's realm.
School's evaluation; Drawing of the school; Social psychology of education
