'I told you so': justification used in disputes in young children's interactions in an early childhood classroom

While justifications are used frequently by young children in their everyday interactions, their use has not been examined to any great extent. This article examines the interactional phenomenon of justification used by young children as they manage social organization of their peer group in an earl...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Discourse studies 2008-10, Vol.10 (5), p.595-614
Main Authors: COBB-MOORE, CHARLOTTE, DANBY, SUSAN, FARRELL, ANN
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Childhood
Children
Children & youth
Classroom communication
Classroom interaction
Classrooms
Conflict
Conversation analysis
Discourse analysis
Disputes
Early childhood
Early childhood education
Elementary schools
Group membership
Justification
Ownership
Peer groups
Peer relations
Possession
Preschool children
Preschool education
Social interaction
Social order
Social organization
Verification
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:While justifications are used frequently by young children in their everyday interactions, their use has not been examined to any great extent. This article examines the interactional phenomenon of justification used by young children as they manage social organization of their peer group in an early childhood classroom. The methodological approaches of conversation analysis and membership categorization analysis were used to analyse video-recorded and transcribed interactions of young children (aged 4–6 years) in a preparatory classroom in a primary school in Australia. The focus is an episode that occurred within the play area of the classroom and involved a dispute of ownership relating to a small, wooden plank. Justifications were frequent occurrences as the young participants drew upon justificatory devices to support their stances. The justifications related to the concepts of ownership and were used by those engaged in the particular dispute to support their positions and provide reasons for their actions. Four types of justificatory responses using child-constructed rules are highlighted. They are: justification based on the rule of transferred ownership; the rule of first possession; rules associated with custodianship; and the rule of third-party verification. The justifications are practices that work to build and reinforce individual children's status within the group, which in turn contributes to the social order of the classroom.
ISSN:1461-4456
1461-7080
DOI:10.1177/1461445608094214