Children’s peer conflict in culturally and linguistically heterogeneous schools: a pedagogical perspective on its risks and opportunities

Nicola Nasi

Abstract


The paper explores children’s peer conflict in classrooms characterized by cultural and linguistic heterogeneity. Drawing from larger video-ethnographic research in two primary schools in northern Italy, this study adopts a CA-informed approach to analyze occurrences of natural conflict between children with a migratory background. As the analysis illustrates, by arguing with each other children refine the social and linguistic skills in their interactional repertoire and negotiate their respective identities and roles in the peer group. Thus, in the discussion I argue that peer conflict entails significant opportunities for migrant children’s social inclusion in the community, but it is also a locus where children might exclude other classmates. On the basis of these insights, the article outlines the pedagogical relevance of peer conflict and proposes few implications for teachers’ professional practice.


Keywords


social inclusion and exclusion; peer group; classroom interaction; Conversation Analysis.

Full Text

PDF (English)

Riferimenti bibliografici


Baraldi, C. (2007), “Cultura della prevaricazione e gestione del conflitto”, in Minori e Giustizia, Vol. 4, pp. 275-290.

Bergmann, J.R. (1998), “Introduction: Morality in Discourse”, in Research on Language and Social Interaction, Vol. 31, n. 3-4, pp. 279-294.

Bertolini, C. (2006), “La gestione del conflitto tra pari nella scuola dell’infanzia”, in Orientamenti Pedagogici, Vol. 53, n. 4, pp. 669-704.

Blum-Kulka, S. & Snow, C.E. (2004), “Introduction: The potential of peer talk”, in Discourse Studies, Vol. 6, pp. 291-306.

Blum-Kulka, S., Huck-Taglicht, D. & Avni, H. (2004), “The Social and Discursive Spectrum of Peer Talk”, in Discourse Studies, Vol. 6, n. 3, pp. 307-328.

Brenneis, D. & Lein, L. (1977), “You fruithead: a sociolinguistic approach to dispute settlement”, in S. Ervin-Tripp & C. Mitchell-Kernan, Child Discourse, New York: Academic Press, pp. 49-65.

Canevaro, A. (2006), “Conflitti, riconoscimenti, mediazioni nel pensiero e nell’azione educativa”, in V. Iervese, La gestione dialogica del conflitto. Analisi di una sperimentazione con bambini e preadolescenti, Imola: La Mandragora, pp. 11-30.

Caronia, L., Colla, V. & Galatolo, R. (2021), “Making unquestionable worlds: Morality building practices in family dinner dialogues”, in L. Caronia, Language and Social Interaction at Home and School, Amsterdam: Benjamins, pp. 87-120.

Cekaite, A. (2012), “Tattling and Dispute Resolution: moral order, emotions and embodiment in the teacher-mediated disputes of young second language learners”, in S. Danby & M. Theobald, Disputes in everyday life: Social and moral orders of children and young people, Bingley, UK: Emerald, pp. 165-192.

Ead. (2013), “Socializing emotionally and morally appropriate peer group conduct through classroom discourse”, in Linguistics and Education, Vol. 24, pp. 511-522.

Cekaite, A. & Björk-Willén, P. (2018), “Enchantment in storytelling: co-operation and participation in children’s aesthetic experience”, in Linguistics and Education, Vol. 48, pp. 52-60.

Cekaite A., Blum-Kulka S. & Grøver V., Teubal E. (2014), “Children’s peer talk and learning: Uniting discursive, social, and cultural facets of peer interactions: Editor’s introduction”, in A. Cekaite, S. Blum-Kulka, V. Grøver & E. Teubal, Children’s peer talk: Learning from each other, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 3-23.

Church, A. (2009), Preference Organization and Peer Disputes. How young children resolve conflict, Farnham, UK: Ashgate.

Cobb-Moore, C., Danby, S. & Farrell, A. (2008). “’I told you so’: justification used in disputes in young children’s interactions in an early childhood classroom”, in Discourse Studies, Vol. 10, n. 5, pp. 595-614.

Corsaro, W. & Rizzo, T. (1988), “Discussione and Friendship: Socialization Processes in the Peer Culture of Italian Nursery School Children”, in American Sociological Review, Vol. 53, n. 6, pp. 879-894.

Corsaro, W. & Maynard, D. (1996), “Format tying in discussion and argumentation among Italian and American children”, in D. Slobin, J. Gerhardt, A. Kyratzis & J. Guo, Social interaction, social context, and language, Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 157–174.

Danby, S. & Baker, C., (1998), “‘What’s the problem?’—Restoring social order in the preschool classroom”, in I. Hutchby & J. Moran-Ellis, Children and Social Competence: Arenas of Action, London: Falmer Press, pp. 159-185.

Danby, S. & Theobald, M. (2012), Disputes in Everyday Life. Social and moral orders of children and young people, Bingley, UK: Emerald.

Ehrlich, S. & Blum-Kulka, S. (2010), “Peer talk as a ‘double opportunity space’: The case of argumentative discourse”, in Discourse & Society, Vol. 21, pp. 211-233.

Eurydice (2019), Integrazione degli studenti provenienti da contesti migratori nelle scuole d’Europa: politiche e misure nazionali, https://eurydice.indire.it/pubblicazioni/ integrazione-degli-studenti-provenienti-da-contesti-migratori-nelle-scuole-deuropa-politiche-e-misure-nazionali/, access May 19, 2022.

Evaldsson, A.C. (2007), “Accounting for Friendship: Moral Ordering and Category Membership in Preadolescent Girls’ Relational Talk”, in Research on Language and Social Interaction, Vol. 40, pp. 377-404.

Fabbri, M. (1996), La competenza pedagogica. Il lavoro educativo fra paradosso e intenzionalità, Bologna: CLUEB.

Goffman, E. (1967), Interaction ritual: Essays inface to face behavior, Garden City, NY: Doubleday.

Id. (1971), Relations in Public. Microstudies of the Public Order, New York: Basic Books.

Goodwin, M.H. (1983), “Aggravated correction and disagreement in children’s conversations”, in Journal of Pragmatics, Vol. 7, pp. 657-677.

Ead. (1990), He-said-she-said: Talk as social organization among Black children, Bloomington: Indiana University Press

Ead. (2002), “Building power asymmetries in girls’ interaction”, in Discourse & Society, 13, 715–730.

Ead. (2006), The Hidden Life of Girls: Games of Stance, Status, and Exclusion, Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Iervese, V. (a cura di) (2006), La gestione dialogica del conflitto. Analisi di una sperimentazione con bambini e preadolescenti, Imola: La Mandragora.

Jefferson, G. (2004), “Glossary of transcript symbols with an introduction”, in G. Lerner, Conversation Analysis. Studies from the first generation, Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamin, pp. 13-31.

Kyratzis, A. (2004), “Talk and interaction among children and the co-construction of peer groups and peer culture”, in Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 33, pp. 625–649.

Kyratzis, A. & Goodwin, M.H. (2017), “Language Socialization in Children’s Peer and Sibling-Kin Group Interactions”, in P. Duff & S. May, Language Socialization, New York: Springer, pp. 123-138.

Lave, J. & Wenger, E. (1991), Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

LeMaster, B. (2010), “Authority and preschool disputes: Learning to behave in the classroom”, in Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, Vol. 20, n. 1, pp. 166 178.

Maybin, J. (2006), Children’s voices: Talk, knowledge and identity, London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Maynard, D. (1985). “On the functions of social conflict among children”, in American Sociological Review, Vol. 50, pp. 207-223.

MIUR (2014), Linee guida per l’accoglienza e l’integrazione di alunni stranieri. Roma: Ministero dell’Istruzione, https://www.istruzione.it/allegati/2014/linee_guida_integrazione_alunni_stranieri.pdf, access May 19, 2022.

Moore, E. & Burdelski, M. (2020), “Peer conflict and language socialization in preschool: Introduction to special issue”, in Linguistics and Education, Vol. 59, 100758.

Nigris, E. (2002), I conflitti a scuola. La mediazione pedagogico-didattica, Milano: Mondadori.

Novara, D. & Di Chio, C. (2013), Litigare con metodo. Gestire i litigi dei bambini a scuola, Trento: Erickson.

Ochs, E., Kremer-Sadlik, T., Solomon, O. & Sirota, K.G. (2001), “Inclusion as social practice: views of children with autism”, in Social Development, Vol. 10, n. 3, pp. 399-419.

Ochs, E. & Schieffelin, B. (2017), “Language Socialization: An Historical Overview”, in P. Duff & S. May, Language socialization, New York: Springer, pp. 3 17.

Pontecorvo, C. (a cura di) (1993a), La condivisione della conoscenza, Firenze: La Nuova Italia.

Ead. (1993b), “Forms of Discourse and Shared Thinking”, in Cognition and Instruction, Vol. 11, n. 3/4, pp. 189-196.

Pontecorvo, C., Ajello, A. & Zucchermaglio, C. (1991), Discutendo si impara. Interazione e conoscenza a scuola, Roma: Carocci.

Pontecorvo, C., & Girardet, H. (1993), “Arguing and Reasoning in Understanding Historical Topics”, in Cognition and Instruction, Vol. 11, n. 3/4, pp. 365-395. Thornborrow, J. (2003), “The organization of primary school children’s on-taskand off-task talk in a small group setting”, in Research on Language and Social Interaction, Vol. 36, n. 1, pp. 7-32.

Weiste, E., Stevanovic, M. & Lindholm, C. (2020), “Introduction: Social Inclusion as an Interactional Phenomenon”, in C. Lindholm, M. Stevanovic & E. Weiste, Joint Decision Making in Mental Health, Berlin: Springer, pp. 1-41.

Zoletto, D. (2012), Dall’intercultura ai contesti eterogenei. Presupposti teorici e ambiti di ricerca pedagogica, Milano: FrancoAngeli.


Refback

  • Non ci sono refbacks, per ora.


Iscrizione al Registro Operatori della Comunicazione R.O.C. n. 10757