Moral beings and becomings : children's moral practices in classroom peer interaction
This study investigates children’s social and moral practices as they appear in everyday classroom
peer interaction. Its focus is on the relations between children’s interaction and moral understandings in situ. Juxtaposing the most archetypal ways of addressing and investigating morality in
mainstream educational psychology, this study approaches morality is as it handled and man-
aged as part of everyday intersubjective interaction. Ethnomethodological approaches alongside
with sociocultural views of thinking are employed as theoretical and analytical frameworks to
delineate how children as moral agents use language and other semiotic resources to accomplish
their local organization of morality. The data consisted of 26 hours of videotaped and transcribed
classroom peer interaction in Finnish primary schools. Three communicative areas in which moral
practices become plainly visible were chosen as basis for the analysis: 1) counting rhyme rulemaking, 2) dispute threatening and 3) accusing practices. The significance of this study is fourfold,
as it not only provides empirical, detailed accounts of children’s morality and participation in
classroom peer group activities, but also offers unique theoretical, methodological and also practical approaches to operationalize children’s morality.
The dissertation consists of three sub-studies and an extended summary. The first sub-
study examines how children exploit their understanding of morality by using a range of meaning-making resources in the context of a classroom counting rhyme. It shows that children are
capable of knowing why some issues might be prohibited, and also of dealing with and playing
with these issues. This account of children’s sophisticated employment of moral agency calls attention to raising teachers’ awareness and appreciation of children’s capability to contribute to
their own moral learning.
The second sub-study investigates children’s threats in a classroom dispute and frame
shifts between pretence and real. The study contributes to understanding of different moral orders in real and pretend frames, and points out that when insults occur in the real life frame they
disrupt the established moral order. The findings suggest implications for how and when teachers
should intervene in children’s disputes.
The third sub-study explores children’s accusations in the classroom. It shows how children
use local classroom rules and teacher authority as resources and warrants to invoke multi-layered
moral orders and identities, and to hold individuals accountable through accusations about their
behaviour. The study highlights an important aspect of social organization regarding the social
exclusion of peers. It also proposes that the use of classroom rules and teacher authority in the
absence of the teacher is a common practice.
Overall, this study shows how the moral realm in school is multi-layered, multimodally
mediated, interactively negotiated and multi-voiced, and it maintains that moral development
must be understood in, and cannot be separated from, the social context and relations.
Traditionally, morality in school has been seen as teacher transmitting values and rules to children,
but this study suggests that, as an ‘unofficial’ counterpart, children’s peer interaction in the
classroom is an important contributor to children’s moral and social competencies. Theories of
children’s morality should more directly include children’s everyday interaction, the role of peers,
and the voices of children and generalized others. It also encourages practitioners and researchers
to acknowledge children as active agents in constructing moral realms in the school life and out-
of-school activities, and to empower children’s decision making.
...
Publisher
University of JyväskyläISBN
978-951-39-6568-6ISSN Search the Publication Forum
0075-4625Contains publications
- Artikkeli I: Niemi, K. 2016 (in press) “Because I Point Myself as the Hog”: Interactional Achievement of Moral Decisions in a Classroom. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction. DOI: 10.1016/j.lcsi.2016.02.002
- Artikkeli II: Niemi, K. 2014. "I will send badass viruses." Peer threats and the interplay of pretend frames in a classroom dispute. Journal of Pragmatics, 66, 106-121. DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2014.02.012
- Artikkeli III: Niemi, K., & Bateman, A. 2015. ‘Cheaters and Stalkers’: Accusations in a classroom. Discourse studies, 17 (1), 83-98. DOI: 10.1177/1461445614557755
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