Based on a case study, this article analyses the process of change and construction of different social contexts and the respective meanings of childhood and school to a group of former colonos in Rio de Janeiro coffee plantations, now living on a rural settlement in the state's mountain region. Considering the historical and social development of the colonato system and the progressive deconstruction of its constituent relationships, the conditions experienced by the children of different generations are analysed with special emphasis on the changes of role and meaning of the school to this group and its implications for the children's daily lives and the representations of childhood itself.
Colonato; Agrarian reform; Childhood; School
