Significados que as crianças atribuem aos seus direitos

The purpose of this study is to learn about the meanings children produce about their rights, at different kinds of school. It is an exploratory, comparative investigation, guided by Socio-Historical Psychology in a qualitative approach. Twenty-one children from both sexes, aged between nine and eleven years, participated in the study. Three groups were formed, each with seven children, based on the following three kinds of school: urban private school, urban public school, and rural public school. For data collection, the participants were asked to produce a text about children rights. The obtained expressions were categorized according to meanings, which were identified on the basis of their similarities. The conceptions that children share (meanings) are: children have the right to play, to consume, and to study. Individual rights and the promotion logic predominate, but there are meanings distinguishing children from each school. The prevailing spontaneous concepts indicate: children are not conscious of their rights; the diffusion of the Child and Adolescent's Statute is precarious; and the school does not participate in this process.