Authority and Preschool Disputes: Learning to Behave in the Classroom

Abstract

Conflict is commonplace in teacher‐centered preschool classroom activities. It is negotiated both verbally and nonverbally, often fading rather than resolving in the interactive moment. The teacher or aide steps in to define what is right and wrong, thus acting to mediate conflict and taking up the position of moral authority. When she does not step in, children may invoke her authority in this regard. Children have a variety of responses to teachers' judgments. When children disagree with teacher/aide's assessments of the conflict, they tend to continue the conflict nonverbally until their attention is diverted and they are reabsorbed into classroom activities. They may also directly refute the authority as long as they use humor to suspend classroom rules. Ultimately in this study of preschool children's conflict, the highly structured teacher‐directed preschool context directs notions of “right” and “wrong,” of morality, as a core function of classroom conflict talk for American preschool children. [preschool, disputes, classroom, authority, conflict]

Responses to Children’s Crying : Emotion Socialization in a Swedish Preschool

“…In various cultural contexts, children's peer disputes and play conflicts are something that educators treat as requiring intervention and conflict mediation (Bateman, 2015;Karlsson, 2018;Burdelski, in press;Moore, in press;LeMaster, in press). Children themselves have been shown to use numerous discursive and embodied strategies to recruit adults to mediate in their disputes with peers (Danby & Baker, 1998;Cekaite, 2012;LeMaster, 2010;Bateman, 2015;Burdelski, in press). As demonstrated in several studies, children orient towards educators as a moral authority and can threaten each other with teachers' attention (see also Church & Hester, 2012, on children's threats in disputes).…”

“…Rather, this thesis demonstrates that these young children had a rich knowledge of the institutional social and moral expectations and responsibilities; for example, the educators' institutional responsibility to attend to crying. Moreover, the children displayed their knowledge of how to use crying for their own social purposes in order to attract an educator's attention and recruit the adult for conflict intervention (Danby & Baker, 1998;Cekaite, 2012;LeMaster, 2010;Bateman, 2015;Burdelski, in press. ) Crying served multiple purposes during children's play conflicts.…”

Bringing Communities and the University Together: Applied Anthropology at California State University, Long Beach

“…In short, many studies have shown an imbalance in behavior by gender among students in American classrooms. Often boys speak more than girls, are more likely to call out answers, and be given the floor while girls will get reprimanded for the same behavior, and boys are much more likely than girls to be praised by the teacher for the same behaviors, and have their answers elaborated (Lee ; LeMaster et al ; LeMaster ; Sadker and Sadker ; Swann ).…”

The Expanding Boundaries of Linguistic Anthropology: 2010 in Perspective

“…In a wide range of settings, references to history in the form of remembered norms are an important aspect of these conflicts (Pagliai 2010c). Barbara LeMaster (2010), for example, demonstrated that both adults and children make reference to remembered classroom norms. One child, Kevin, avoids punishment by referencing a separate classroom norm, the teacher's “Shhh”:…”

“…](10) Kevin: ((turns and meanly looks at the aide and raises his index finger to his lips)) Shhhh! [LeMaster 2010:174]…”