This article compares the literature produced between 1983-2001 on full-time public schooling and the social representation that users and workers formed about it. After analysing the main themes of the relevant literature, four Integrated Centres of Public Education (CIEP) were selected, in working-class districts, in order to identify the social representations created by their students, parents, teachers and administrative staff. Although some of the questions raised by the literature could not be verified, the research indicated the existence of two different social representations about the full-time public school and the demand for it. One of them was the teachers' view, based on the needs of children to justify the maintenance of these schools, which was similar to the arguments found in the literature. The other was the social representation of parents and school children and was formed around the notion of satisfaction, contemplating the ideas of leisure, future and education.
full-time public school; social representation; needs x satisfaction