Historical-cultural lessons on school bathroom graffiti

Bathroom graffiti are a mean of communication between unknown and can convey ideas, images and answers to social and cultural questions. Hence, this study aimed at analyzing bathroom graffiti made by students from 10 Brazilian public schools. We carried out a research of qualitative character that gathered a photographic record of images and texts from 58 school restrooms for both sexes. We identified a total of 544 graffiti in women’s bathrooms and 87 in men’s bathrooms. We conducted data analysis through Vygotsky’s historical-cultural perspective to guide us in the building of thematic categories. We identified five thematic categories associated with the expression of students’ experiences both regarding a wider social context (music, for example) and school (conflicts and affection, for example), as well as children’s and adolescents’ developing phase at school (sexuality and self-image, for example). It was possible to conclude that analyzing historical-cultural graffiti is important to address health issues based on knowledge, values, representations, taboos, meanings and concepts of identified social practices.