From the perspective of socio-historical pedagogy, the man is a being which is characterized by authorship, autonomy and sociality. Nowadays, the skills comprised in the development of multiliteracies can enhance these features. In this research, we analyze how the school has been involved into the teaching and learning of these skills. We investigate the activities of elementary school teachers from eight public schools of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The methodology is based on a qualitative approach, with the use of the following tools: i) semi-structured interviews conducted with 64 teachers; ii) participant observation of four teachers from two schools. Overall, our findings suggest that the teachers understand the use of technologies, merely, as a facilitating tool for their traditional practices. Main evidence comes from the fact that only nine teachers showed familiarity with the term literacy. A minority of participants indicated experiences and activities aimed at developing the multiliteracies skills. Moreover, almost no use of technology was observed in the classrooms, although a recurrent theme in the interviews was a clear intuition of the importance of its use. The teachers reported about their difficulties, due to the lack of a good connection to the Internet, the shortage of time and their own training, which did not provide them with skills for the use of digital technologies. These results give important insights into the general lack of intentionality of their practices and objectives. Finally, we report the interventions focused on the multiliteracies that have occurred over the last year of the survey, both with teachers and students.