Children's Peer Culture

ABSTRACT
This ethnographic case study explored the nature of educational drama in a teacher education setting from teacher educators’ and preservice teachers’ perspectives. Ethnographic methods, including participant observation, face-to-face interviews, and document analysis, were utilized. Data collection methods included semi-structured individual and group interviews, participant observation in the local settings, and WebCT discussions. The data were collected during one course over ten-week period. The participants were one teacher educator and 16 preservice teachers enrolled in Masters in Education program at a regional campus of a Midwestern state university.
This study identified resistance, community, and power as important dynamics in teacher education. When preservice teachers did not see the immediate connection between the activities and their expectations, they acted in a way that teacher educators considered as resistance. When preservice teachers assumed the roles in a drama activity relevant to their interests, they were attentive and collaborative. This study highlighted the importance of social interaction and power dynamics in the classroom and pointed teacher educators’ attention to the culture that preservice teachers constructed together. Preservice teachers constructed a peer culture, which defined their interactions among themselves and between their local culture and broader school culture. In this study,
resistance, community, and power were closely related and mutually affecting each other. Theoretical and practical implications of educational drama in teacher education are discussed.

This paper examines transition rituals and activities of Norwegian Russ (youth graduating from high school). Drawing on observations, archival and in-depth interview data collected over six years, we make two important findings. First, through their creative participation in traditional rituals Russ develop and share their own collective identity while also contributing to civic society more generally. Second, intergenerational relations play a central role in the Russ experience and through their activities with younger children and adults Russ reflect on their own temporal positions in the generational order. Our analysis contributes to better understanding of the changing nature of the symbolic value of Russ in Norwegian society, debate about the growing commercialization of youth traditions and activities in a global economy, and the complexity of the liminal aspect of rites of transition.

Thème Sociabilité de pairs L'échange de goûters à l'école élémentaire. Une pratique culturelle propre à l'enfance ? 1 À l'école, les enfants sont très tôt confrontés à la culture. Ils apprennent des comptines, des poésies, des jeux et se familiarisent à la littérature de jeunesse. De nombreuses sorties au musée, au théâtre ou au cirque sont organisées tout au long de leur parcours scolaire. L'institution participe ainsi à la transmission d'une culture riche et diversifiée à ces élèves : culture musicale, littéraire, artistique, ludique. L'enfant est alors considéré comme un public apte à recevoir cette culture, à l'intégrer et à la partager dans la mesure où celle-ci lui est adaptée.

Tesar, M., & Koro-Ljungberg, M. (2016). Cute, creepy and sublime unnamed childhood monstrosities. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 37(5), 694–704. doi:10.1080/01596306.2015.1075708

Strangers, Gods, and monsters are all names for the experience of alterity and otherness within and amongst us. We need monsters in our lives. In this paper we use philosophy as a method to explore language, developmental and cultural instabilities, and terrifying (and discursive) monstrosity located within children's literature and childhood contexts. Philosophy as a method serves as an engagement, an ethical relationship with monstrous thoughts, and as an opening to the philosophical thinking of everyday practices of childhood play (i.e., through objects, practices, language, text, and images). Alongside and through cute, creepy and sublime notions of monsters in children's literature children become monsters–monsters become children. We draw from Derrida's notions of hospitality and hostility and Deleuze and Guattari's deterritorialization of minor literature as well as from literature on monsters, monstrosities, and ugliness. We argue that different representations of childhood monstrosity can help educators and other adults to see the 'productive' in childhood otherness, to consider the always present 'childhood undecidable' (simultaneous presence of cute and creepy) and the generative in infinitely unknown and unrecognizable childhood objects and discourses.

Öz. Araştırmanın amacı okul öncesi sınıfındaki Suriyeli çocukların yaşantılarının ve oluşturdukları akran kültürünün anlaşılmasıdır. Etnografik durum çalışması olarak tasarlanan araştırma, Kahramanmaraş ilindeki bir ana sınıfında gerçekleşmiştir. Araştırmanın katılımcıları; beş yaşındaki 17 çocuk ve aileleridir. Araştırmanın verileri; katılımcı gözlem, yarı-yapılandırılmış ve yapılandırılmamış görüşmeler ve dokümanlardır. Veriler 10 ay boyunca araştırmacının kendi sınıfında toplanmıştır. Toplanan veriler araştırma süreci içinde ve sonunda içerik analiz yöntemiyle çözümlenmiştir. Elde edilen bulgulara göre, akran kültüründe konuşma dilinin, Türk ailelerin yaklaşımının ve sınıfta popüler olan Türk çocuklarının önemli unsurlar olduğu anlaşılmıştır. Öğretmenin Suriyeli çocuklara karşı yaklaşımı ve kullandığı öğretim materyalleri çocukların okul yaşamının gidişatını belirlemiştir. Suriyeli ailelerin okulla kurduğu yakın ilişki ve dil öğrenimine yönelik pozitif tutumları çocukların okula uyum sürecini kolaylaştırmıştır. Bu anlamda eğitim kurumları mülteci çocukların okulu sevmesini sağlamalı ve aileleriyle yakın ilişkiler kurmalıdır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Suriyeli çocuklar, okul öncesi eğitim, etnografik araştırma Abstract. The aim of this study is to understand the experiences of Syrian children in preschool class and the peer culture they create. The study, which was designed as an ethnographic case study in preschool class. Participantsare 17 children, five year old and their parents. The data were collected in10 months through the participant observer technique and the interview, observation, document analysis. According to the study results, it was understood that the language of speech, the approach of Turkish families and the Turkish children who are popular in the classroom are important elements in peer culture. The teacher's approach towards Syrian children and the teaching materials she used determined the course of the school life. The close relationship of Syrian families with the school and their positive attitudes towards language learning facilitated the children's adaptation to school.

Children’s peer social worlds as part of language and literacy learning are often “hidden” from researchers and teachers alike. This article reports on collaborative research between a researcher and veteran kindergarten teacher into these hidden worlds. We draw upon ethnographic documentation (videos, interviews, field notes) and video microanalysis with two aims for our inquiry. For one, we are interested in the teacher’s perspective on children’s peer reading behaviors and what children are learning as part of these practices. Secondly, we reflect on how using video to look closely into hidden classroom life contributes to teacher learning. The result is a detailed analysis from the teacher’s perspective of how children acquire both the character and skills for learning to read when reading with a peer. Findings contribute to literatures on the sociolinguistic features of children’s peer reading and teacher development in literacy education.

This qualitative study explored eight 4-year-old children’s peer conflict during pretense. Based on Bateson’s （1972） idea of metacommunication and Goffman’s（1974）frame theory, the researcher found that whether to be in-frame or out-of-frame to negotiate conflict was closely related to the following features: nature of pretense, pretend phase, number of oppositional turns, discourse skill, goal of peer interaction. Most conflicts occurred in socio-dramatic pretense and during the dramatization phase. They often caused children to step out of pretend frame. Those who shared understanding about pretense, including collaborative and parallel players, could metacommunicate longer in-frame. The more oppositional turns
were exchanged, the less engrossed children were in pretense. Children applied a variety of discourse devices, such as “pretend”, “right”, and “too” to evoke comradeship, integrate different opinions, transform symbolic ideas, mutually aware while monitoring each other’s mind. The findings inspire preschool teachers to recognize the characteristics of peer conflict
in children’s pretense, as well as appreciate its significance in the development of pretend play and metacommunicative abilities.

Mekânsal olarak hareket alanımızı genişleten ulaşım teknolojileri ve mekânlar arası mesafeleri önemsizleştiren iletişim teknolojilerinden sonra, son onyıllarda yaşamımızın büyük parçası haline gelen dijital teknolojiler gündelik hayat deneyimlerimizi büyük oranda değiştirmiştir. Analog çocukluk deneyimi yaşayan kuşakların dijital teknolojilerle geçirdiği evrim, şimdiye kadar oldukça üzerinde durulan bir konu olmakla beraber, bugün dijital bir dünyanın içine doğan çocukların, yani ‘dijital yerlilerin’ gündelik hayat deneyimleri üzerine yapılan çalışmalar henüz yaygınlık kazanma aşamasındadır. Dolayısıyla dijital dünyanın dilini konuşmayı bilen, eski kuşaklara göre dijital teknolojilerle etkileşim kurma konusunda görece yetkinlik sahibi olan kuşaklar üzerine yapılacak çalışmaların hem çocukluk çalışmaları hem insan ile teknoloji ilişkisini ele alan araştırmalar açısından önem taşıdığı düşünülmektedir.
Kitle iletişim araçları üzerine yaptığı çalışmalarıyla Postman (1982) çocuk ve yetişkin dünyaları arasındaki ayrımın televizyon neticesinde ortadan kalktığı iddiasında bulunan öncü düşünürlerdendir. Bu iddia, çocukluk çalışmalarının görece yaygınlık kazandığı 1990’lı yıllardan günümüze eleştirilip tartışılsa dahi, temel olarak teknolojinin çocuk dünyasına etkisi, insanların tamamının gündelik hayatı üzerindeki dönüştürücü potansiyelinin göz önünde bulundurması açısından değer taşır. Yeni medya teknolojilerini geleneksel kitle iletişim araçlarıyla kıyasladığımızda ortaya konulan başlıca farkın insan-makine etkileşimine olanak tanıyan dijital teknolojiler olduğunu belirtmek mümkündür. Teknolojik aygıtların insanın zihinsel ve bedensel sınırlarına dahil olmaya başladığı günümüzde yetişen çocukların da, yetişkin dünyasına ait bilgiye her zamankinden daha kolaylıkla eriştikleri doğru olmakla birlikte, dijital aygıtlarla özdeşlik kuran ve öznelliklerini teknolojik cihazlar aracılığıyla inşa eden çocuklar, yetişkinlerden ayrıksı, kendilerine özgü bir anlam dünyasını üretme olanağına sahiptir. Tarihsel ve toplumsal olarak inşa edilmiş bir kavram olarak çocukluğun, Postman’ın iddia ettiği gibi yok olduğundan söz etmek haliyle olası değildir.
Çocukluk çalışmalarının genelinde çocuğun failliği, eyleyen aktif özneler oldukları hakim konular arasındadır, bu açıdan çocuklar üzerine yapılan araştırmalarda onların kendi anlam dünyalarını nasıl kurduklarına değinmekle birlikte, çocukların kendi dünyalarının özneleri oldukları örneklerin yaygınlaşmasından söz etmek mümkündür. Çocuk-merkezlilik sadece bu alandaki teorik yaklaşım değil, aynı zamanda araştırma yönteminin de yaygın olarak kabul gördüğü anlayış haline gelmiştir. Çocukluk ve teknoloji arasındaki ilişki düşünüldüğünde ise, burada özellikle üzerinde durulacak olan konu, çocukluğun mevcut dijital teknolojiyle nasıl dönüştüğüdür. Yeni medya teknolojilerinin gündelik hayatta yerini almasıyla birlikte, belki ilk defa çocukların dijital çağın jenerasyonları olarak yetişkinlere nazaran avantajlı bir statü kazanma ihtimallerinden söz etmek mümkündür. Bu düşünce bağlamında geliştirilen teorilerin örnekler çerçevesinde karşılaştırılmalı olarak ele alınacağı metinde, çocukların özneleşme olanakları dijital teknolojilerle etkileşimleri çerçevesinde sorgulanırken; hem özne’nin kurulumunun dijital öznellik / kendilik açısından nasıl şekillendiği, hem yeni jenerasyonların dijital çağ içerisindeki konumunun onların yetişkinlerle yaşadıkları hiyerarşiye dayanan ilişkiyi nasıl dönüştürdüğü konularına değinilmeye çalışılacaktır.

In this paper, we draw upon three observation data to explore the concept of pretend play and peer cultures among kindergarten children situated in a childcare center of the Midwestern area of the U.S. Framed in this study, Paley's (1992) notion of dynamic play that exists within children that children behavior is changing over time and across ages. Pretend-play and peer culture are worth investigating to better understand children's social development that might have implication for their success in education. Two observation data were obtained from a university-based Child Care Center, and one from an Indonesian family who have lived in the U.S. for three years. 12 children aged three to four years old and two kindergarten teachers were involved during the observation. The observations lasted for about 40 minutes. The findings suggest that the children were involved in different kinds of play: (1) spontaneous fantasy, and (2) socio-dramatic play. Spontaneous fantasy is when children are involved in a less structured play or no strict rule that governs the activity. Socio-dramatic play is kinds of play when children take agency that exist in the society, such as mothers, fathers, workers, and other adulthood. Both types of pretend play embodied shared knowledge about how to play appropriately based on the theme and plot emerged.

This study investigated the relationships that children living in rural regions in Turkey have with the opposite sex and the roles of boys and girls with respect to peer culture. Qualitative data collection methods such as observation, interview, and document analysis were used and the data were analysed through qualitative data analysis methods. During the data collection process, 6-year-old pre-school children were observed for six weeks in the researcher's own classroom and the data were recorded through detailed field notes. The cultural society in which the children live, their activities in the classroom and friendship relations established outside school were found to be important factors that influence the children's relationships with the opposite sex. Relationships with the opposite sex were observed to differ according to the type of activity in the classroom. Furthermore, the function of the material used during games was found to vary according to relationships with the opposite sex.

This paper refers to a selected fragment in an ethnographic study on children’s subjectivization processes through digital technologies concerning children’s interaction with the digital world and how their different cultural tendencies reflect virtual space. Children’s digital world experiences, and their new media preferences have become an important part of their peer culture. Studies on children’s peer cultures and on the effects of technological devices on human beings commenced in the 1990s within various disciplines, for example, Aarsand studied children’s interest in computer games, while Turkle focused on human-machine relations. During the 2000s, virtual space changed the trajectories of those studies into other fields. However, studies focusing on people’s interaction with technology have rarely been directly related to children’s agency, or the sociology of childhood. Therefore, this research presents a new approach to childhood studies by using traditional concepts with changing perspectives. The main purpose of this study is to reveal how children’s peer cultures and also individual agencies have been shaped through digital technologies including online activities. For this whole study, various techniques were used to analyse children’s interactions with the virtual world by focusing on their opinions regarding technological development in the world. The parts selected for this paper are based on several clips of interviews, the topics of which are: freedom in virtual space in a comparison with real – virtual worlds on the basis of their limit(less)ness; the possible relations between humans and machines; the possibilities of surviving on ‘internetlessness’; children’s relations with online games according to social media preferences, and interaction with virtual spaces in general.

full paper: https://ijpint.com/resources/html/article/details?id=196450#