Cobb-Moore2008

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Cobb-Moore2008
BibType ARTICLE
Key Cobb-Moore2008
Author(s) Charlotte Cobb-Moore, Susan Danby, Ann Farrell
Title “I told you so”: Justification used in disputes in young children's interactions in an early childhood classroom
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Conversation Analysis, Membership Categorization Analysis, Children, Early Childhood Classroom, Dispute, Justification, Interaction
Publisher
Year 2008
Language
City
Month
Journal Discourse Studies
Volume 10
Number 5
Pages 595–614
URL Link
DOI 10.1177/1461445608094214
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

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.

Notes