Exclusion and inclusion in peer groups

Abstract

We consider practices of exclusion and ridicule in peer groups in two distinct cultural contexts and with participants with distinct sensory access to the world. First, we consider exclusionary acts in a multiethnic girls’ peer group spanning fourth- to sixth-graders in a progressive Southern California school in the United States. We then consider interactions in a peer group consisting of deaf and hearing peers in a fourth-grade classroom in Iquitos, Peru. Our work uses ethnographic fieldwork, including videotaping, to make available the moment-by-moment interactive processes through which exclusion and ridicule are accomplished. This research also constitutes one of very few comparative studies of exclusionary practices, making comparisons across cultural contexts with respect to sensorial access to the world.