This paper derives from the report on the supervised teaching practice, recently defended in the context of a Master’s degree in Visual Arts Education. We worked with 12^th grade students of professional education, to whom we taught the Illustration module, in the discipline of Drawing and Visual Communication, in Santo André Secondary School, at Barreiro (within the metropolitan area of Lisbon, Portugal), in the school year of 2012 / 2013.

Our general objective was to provide conditions to students to reflect, to built and to take on an identity at all levels, as well as being aware of all the cultural influences and contributions that can make them create different perspectives about themselves and the world they live in. Our second objective derived from our biggest challenge in classroom, which was trying to improve student’s engagement in school.

This study was guided by three research questions that sought to ascertain:  what was the validity of the use of Gadamer's hermeneutics as a didactical approach to illustration?; is School able to play a role in the construction of the students' identity?; and in what ways the construction of self-concept could increase students’ engagement in school?

Our theoretical framework is based on three strands:  the epistemological approach of Hans-Georg Gadamer hermeneutics; the learning approach of the sociocultural theory of Lev S. Vygotsky; and the development of identity approach of psychosocial theory of Erik Erikson. These three authors complement themselves around the idea of constructing the self with the Other.

Erikson relegates the identity crisis to adolescence, making it a major issue in our students age group (1976, pp. 240-242). He points that crisis or conflict is fundamental to triggering development throughout eight stages (1976, pp. 227-253). Gadamer also refers the notion of pre-conception, while expectation, as a determinant condition to reach knowledge, for opposite to the illuminist notion of prejudice (1997). Both authors understand that obstacles such as crisis or prejudices are, in fact, opportunities to achieve knowledge and development.

Gadamer also emphasizes the notion of horizon as a historical positioning that limits our understanding, which is formed by a series of values, cultural structures and ways of thinking (1997, p. 372). The philosopher shares with Vygotsky the idea of the subject’s rooting in the cultural sphere, and the relevance which is giving to the dialogic / relational dynamics, based on language as a means of overcoming obstacles, such as preconceptions or difficulties with which one is confronted in learning situations (Vygotsky, 1988, p. 64).

Vygotsky stresses the importance of interaction with a more experienced one in order to create opportunities for students to develop. This mechanism, which relies on imitation, goes beyond copying and is mainly based on a trampoline strategy that enhances students' abilities in what is their zone of proximal development (1988, p. 97).

The importance of developing the self-concept, as a personal variable of students’ engagement in school (Veiga, 2012, p. 34), also fulfils the function of contributing to the construction of identity, which we understand to be processed at the individual, relational and collective level (Brewer & Gardner, 1996, p. 84).

Brewer, M & Gardner, W. (1996). Who is this “We”? Levels of collective identity and self representations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 71 (1), 83-93. Erikson, E. (1976). Infância e sociedade. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar. Gadamer, Hans-Georg (1997). Verdad y método I (7ª ed). Salamanca: Ediciones Sígueme. Veiga, F. et al. (2012 a). Envolvimento dos alunos na escola: conceito e relação com o desempenho académico – sua importância na formação de professores. Revista Portuguesa de Pedagogia. Ano 46-2, 31-47. Vygotsky, L. S. (1988). A formação social da mente. São Paulo: Martins Fontes.