Premising and arguing: The variety in 9- to 10-year-old children taking on an equity/equality task in the context of group discussions

Abstract

This study investigates primary school children's practices of premising (the handling of task premises) and arguing when confronted with a dilemmatic school task as part of a group discussion. As such, the study contributes to the field of education and argumentation with new insights into how children negotiate validity and relevance in relation to the task when asked to argue their stance on an equity/equality matter. The data consist of transcripts of 247 min of video recordings capturing 13 group discussions (54 children, split into groups of four to five, and two teachers) in the German primary school subject Sachunterricht . The findings clarify how the children dynamically move in and out of the task premises, and at times question them, both implicitly and explicitly. The task's openness and ambiguity are discussed in relation to the children's arguing and premising. The teacher's role as mediator in group discussions is contrasted with other forms of classroom discourse. Furthermore, the relevance for researchers to consider the social and cultural circumstances of research in schools – for example, when interpreting children's utterances – is emphasized.