This paper provides the findings of a mixed study, with an exploratory-descriptive approach, that inquires about the processes of literacy and critical thinking that take place in the second level of transition and the first basic level of a municipal school, in two Communes of Santiago de Chile. The sample spanned 210 children and six educators. The results of the research reveal, on the one hand, the different conceptions that educators / teachers hold about these processes, and the perception of how they are closely related. On the other hand, a mismatch appears between the discourse of educators / teachers and the practices actually found in the classroom, in which they grant little room for the promotion and development of critical thinking in their students.