This paper presents the findings of an exploratory study conducted in 2007 in three municipal schools in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, all participants in the 2005 School Generation Study (GERES) Project. As school spaces possess an important educational dimension and material aspects of school play a leading role in establishing educational practices that can curb or spur the dissemination of knowledge and skills, the set of teaching tasks examined in these schools focused mainly on the development of basic reading and writing skills. Data sources included photographs of classrooms, book nooks, bulletin boards and reading rooms, with significant aspects of these institutions identified by the types, layouts, uses and functions of spaces and objects designed to encourage reading. This analysis helps build up a better understanding of school effectiveness from the standpoint of the visual discourses presented by schools as factors underpinning the learning process.
school spaces; school effectiveness; reading skills
