Children’s Moral Evaluations of Inclusion and Exclusion during Play in Regard to Ethnic Background

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the likelihood of children including a child of a different ethnic origin in their games. In focusing on 359 children aged six, eight, and twelve, the research sought to understand how the children categorized their views on this subject and whether the decision to include or exclude would change at the behest of peers, teachers, or parents. The study was inspired by the work presented by Walker et al. (2019), and five questions related to this topic were used as data collection tools. As a result of the deductive and inductive analyses, it was determined that most of the children believed that those from different ethnic origins should be included in play time. When the reasons for including children in games were examined, the answers given were generally connected the category of "Moral Justifications". For the children more prone to excluding peers of a different ethnicity, responses tended to find themselves in the "Cultural stereotypes/Personal characteristics" sub-category.