Peer Culture Research Articles

Envisioning world citizens? Self-presentations of an international school in Germany and related orientations of its pupils

Against the backdrop of changes in global education, the German education system has undergone immense diversification. Many private schools are being founded, among them international schools catering both to an international clientele and to growing numbers of Germans. This article presents results from part of a qualitative longitudinal study on educational careers of young people and the role of peer cultures. The self-presentations of an international school centred on pupil support, lifelong learning and global citizenship are set in relation to the perspectives of their pupils in this context.

Civil committees during the January Revolution in Egypt: Youth safeguarding their neighbourhood

Children and adolescents have long been treated as the products of the socialization process they experience through their families and surrounding communities. They are rarely perceived as ‘social actors’ who can affect their surroundings or the way the society operates. This ethnographic research aims to investigate the role played by a group of children and adolescents who voluntarily formed a civil committee (a term propagated during the January Revolution in Egypt) to defend their neighbourhood against thugs’ attacks. In the absence of law enforcement, they volunteered to defend their homes, families and personal belongings. The research argues that through their interaction together and the development of their peer culture, children were able to develop skills and defence mechanisms to protect their neighbourhood. It concludes that children’s peer culture, in addition to creating social cohesion among the group, helped them to develop their abilities and skills to overcome threats.

Children Reading Series Books: Ways into Peer Culture and Reading Development

This article, drawing on research which aimed to explore how young children read English in Singapore, demonstrates how nine-year-old Singaporean children’s voluntary reading of series books served the dual purposes of enabling their membership of the peer group through culturated reading and the independent development of their reading skills and motivation for reading. Using interviews to encourage conversation and reflection, the research examined children’s book choices and their reasons for reading. This formed part of a topic-focussed ethnographic study in three primary schools. In addition, the article seeks to prove that Singaporean children’s choice of series books makes them readers with potential for global, intra-generational, cultural connections rather than familial, inter-generational ones, and it is especially significant educationally for less well-off families where English is not the dominant home language.

Are Girls more Resilient to Gender-Conformity Pressure? The Association Between Gender-Conformity Pressure and Academic Self-Efficacy

Since the 1990s, it has become clear that Belgian girls tend to outperform boys on educational parameters. Similar educational gender gaps are encountered in other western industrialized countries and are often attributed to cultural conventions concerning typical masculinity and femininity, which would inform gendered study cultures. This paper investigates the influence of gendered peer cultures in Flanders on an individual level by employing the concept of pressure for gender conformity. More specifically, the gender-differentiated impact of gender-conformity pressure is investigated in relation to academic self-efficacy. We examine these inter- and intragender differences in a sample of 6380 seventh-grade students in Flanders (the northern, Dutch-speaking part of Belgium), clustered in 59 schools. The data were collected at the start and the end of the 2012–13 school year. Results from multilevel regression analysis at two waves show that boys’ academic self-efficacy is lower when experiencing more pressure for gender conformity. Girls’ academic self-efficacy, however, does not decline when experiencing similar levels of pressure. In addition, when taking into account the negative toll that pressure for gender conformity has on girls’ well-being, their academic self-efficacy is higher when experiencing more pressure. This gender-differentiated impact of pressure for gender conformity is not apparent at the start of the school year, but emerges in the course of seventh grade. The results are discussed in light of gendered expectations for boys and girls in the Belgian context.

The use of the death trope in peer culture play: grounds for rethinking children and childhood?

Dying and death in children's imaginative play is often subjected to literal interpretation, seen as evidence of meaning-making about death or a form of catharsis. Viewed in this light, children's enactment of uncaused and reversible deaths in ludic activity is considered evidence of developmental ‘immaturity’. Such interpretations, however, fundamentally misplace the contestive and transformative aspects of play [Henricks, T. S. (2006). Play reconsidered: Sociological perspectives on human expression. Urbana: University of Illinois Press]. In contrast, this article argues for the importance of figurative interpretations of children's play. Drawing on data generated in an ethnographic study at an early years setting in West London, it will be suggested that the death trope served as a generative metaphor in the peer culture, its everyday world characteristics provoking relatively stable responses in the face of uncertainties and ambiguities encountered in ludic activity. The use of the death trope made intimate, caring touch between children permissible, rather than just a by-product of small play spaces filled with many bodies.

“Girls are addicted to likes so they post semi-naked selfies”: Peer mediation, normativity and the construction of identity online

This paper examines how children aged 11-16 in three European countries (Italy, UK and Spain) develop and present their online identities, and their interactions with peers. It focuses on young people’s engagement with the construction of an online identity on social media through pictures, and explores how peer-mediated conventions of self-presentation are appropriated, legitimated, or resisted in pre-teens’ and teenagers’ discourses. In doing so, we draw on Goffman’s (1959) work on the presentation of self and “impression management” to frame our analysis. Mobile communication and social network sites serve an important role in the process of self-presentation and emancipation, providing “full-time” access to peers and peer culture. Our findings suggest that there are gender differences and the presence of sexual double standards in peer normative discourses. Girls are positioned as being more subjected to peer mediation and pressure. Boys blame girls for posing sexy in photos, and negatively sanction this behaviour as being aimed at increasing one’s popularity online or as an indicator of “a certain type of girl.” However, girls who post provocative photos chose to conform to a sexualised stereotype as a means of being socially accepted by peers. Moreover, they identify with the pressure to always look “perfect” in their online pictures. While cross-national variations do exist, this sexual double standard is observed in all three countries. These insights into current behaviours could be further developed to determine policy guidance for supporting young people as they learn to manage image laden social media.

Social orders and interactions among children in age-mixed classes in primary schools – new perspectives from a synthesis of ethnographic data

The article synthesises data from two ethnographic projects, which both explore interactions of children in age-mixed groups in primary schools. It illuminates critical perspectives on social orders and children's interactions in age-mixed classes by showing how pupils in age-mixed groups become involved in power relations and how the teacher's authority and institutional rules are intricately interwoven into the social orders of the peer culture. The article highlights children's complicity with the teacher and her expectations and accordingly questions the notion of an increase of children's autonomy in age-mixed groups.

Boobs, back-off, six packs and bits: Mediated body parts, gendered reward, and sexual shame in teens' sexting images

In this paper, we explore a contemporary panic around teen sexting considering why it focuses mostly on girls' bodies and ‘breasts’. Drawing on empirical findings from research with 13- and 15-year olds in two London schools, we ask: How are girls' and boys' mediated bodies and body parts constructed, negotiated and made sense of in the teen peer group? How are images of girls' breasts surveilled and owned by others? In what ways can images of girls' bodies be used to sexually shame them? How do images of ‘boobs’ work differently than those of ‘six-packs’ and ‘pecs’? When and how is digital proof of sexual activity shamed or rewarded? Our analysis explores the affective dimensions of digital affordances and how relative gendered value is generated through social media images and practices. We demonstrate how our qualitative research approach facilitates exploration of the online and offline relational, material embodied performance of negotiating gender and sexuality in teen's digitally mediated peer cultures.

A Cyber Peer Culture of an Elementary School Girl Group: Centered on a SNS called CAS(Cacao Story)

A Cyber Peer Culture of an Elementary School Girl Group: Centered on a SNS called CAS(Cacao Story)

The Ecology of Volunteerism Among College Women: Identifying Campus Environments that Inform Volunteering Behaviors

This study explores the relationship between campus environments, female college student peer culture, and the tendency to volunteer while in college. The authors used Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model of human development (1977, 2005) as a framework to (a) identify one multi-faceted campus environment that is linked to volunteerism among college women and (b) investigate the experiences of both those who do and do not volunteer in college. Findings suggest that females who participate in student clubs/groups, leadership training, and racial/cultural awareness workshops are over 10 times more likely to volunteer compared to students who do not engage in these three specific campus environments. The authors also show that the relationships between some academic and co-curricular experiences are vastly different between women who volunteer and women who do not volunteer. The results of this study not only shed light on the importance of using a more nuanced approach toward examining patterns of volunteerism but also offer a template for researchers and practitioners to apply the ecological model to their own unique campus populations and settings.

과학 수업의 혼성공간에서 드러나는 중학생의 지식자본 및 교수학습 특성: 7학년 생명 영역을 중심으로

학습자가 가진 문화와 자원을 수업의 중심 자원으로 이끌어내고자 하는 노력은, 학습자에게 보다 호응할 수 있는 교수학습을 모색하는 연구자들에게 중요한 단초를 제공할 수 있다. 본 연구에서는 과학수업의 혼성적 공간에서 학습자들이 드러내는 지식자본으로는 어떤 것이 있는지 살펴보고, 이같은 지식자본이 자발적 과정을 통해 수업 상황으로 유입되고, 수업의 핵심적 자원으로 작용하려면 어떠한 교수적 지원이 뒷받침되어야 하는지 알아보고자 하였다. 이를 위하여 7학년 '주변의 생물', '식물과 영양' 단원에서의 실제 수업 상황에서 5개월에 걸친 참여관찰을 수행하였고, 학습자의 지식자본이 가장 활발하게 부상하는 수업을 추출하였으며, 근거이론에 기반한 지속적 비교분석법을 이용하여 수집된 자료를 범주화 하였다. 연구 결과, 학생의 지식자본은 가정, 지역공동체, 또래문화, 대중문화 등의 4가지 기반에서 근거한 것으로 범주화할 수 있었으며, 특히 또래문화와 관련된 지식자본이 학습자의 보다 활발한 발화 및 참여를 촉진하는 것으로 드러났다. 또 이와 같은 지식자본이 수업 상황으로 보다 적극적으로 유입되기 위해서는 혼성적 수업 환경의 제공과 더불어 유입된 지식자본의 보편성, 지식자본의 공유와 확장, 그리고 지식의 공동 구성 및 공유라고 하는 실행공동체의 지향이 필요함을 알 수 있었다. 본 연구에서는 이 같은 교수학습적 특성에 기반하여, 학습자가 가진 '잠재적 수업자원'으로서의 지식자본을 어떻게 '실질적인 수업의 자원'으로 끌어올릴 수 있을 것인지에 대한 교육적 함의를 제시하였다. 학습자의 지식자본을 기반으로 한 수업은 전통적인 수업에서 점점 소외되고 있는 다양한 비참여자들을 포함하여 학습자들을 보다 적극적으로 수업으로 초대할 수 있는 발판이 되어준다. 또한 학습자의 삶에서 비롯된 경험과 과학 지식의 혼성적 상호작용을 통하여 지식의 공동 구성을 가능하게 하며, 보다 유의미한 학습 경험으로 자리 잡을 수 있게 한다는 데 그 의의가 있다. Extracting students' own culture and resources as main sources in science class, we begin a research to explore teaching and learning settings that are more responsive to adolescents. This study has been designed to explore the funds of knowledge that students bring into middle school science class. It also focused on the features of teaching and learning settings that stimulated the autonomous inflow of students' funds of knowledge as resources of science learning. Data from participant observations and in-depth interviews with 7th grade students were qualitatively analyzed based on grounded theory. We found that students' funds of knowledge were formed from their family life, neighbor communities, peer group, and pop culture. The funds of knowledge based on peer culture emerged as the most salient factor of students' enhanced participation and utterance. Common features of classes that stimulated the inflow of funds of knowledge were analyzed to be: (1) hybrid spaces for learning designed in advance: (2) sharing and enlargement of the funds of knowledge that has been brought into the class: and (3) common orientation of the community of practice for knowledge co-construction and shared outcomes. From these findings, this paper discussed the educational implications for promoting students' potential resources to actual sources of science class. It also discussed students' development of participation specifically among the generally marginalized students. Science classes based on the funds of knowledge of students offer an increased possibility of knowledge co-construction through the hybridized interactions of student's everyday lives and science knowledge and lead to more meaningful learning experiences.

Social workers and volunteers in Israel

Summary This study examines factors associated with Israeli social workers’ investment of effort in, and inclusion of, volunteers in their work. The variables are drawn from three theories: status characteristic theory, psychological contract theory, and organizational culture theory, and from claims regarding training in working with volunteers. The sample consisted of 118 randomly selected direct social workers in 26 municipal social service departments in Israel. The instruments were designed specifically for the study. Findings Social workers’ effort investment and inclusion increased when they: (a) viewed volunteers as contributing to social workers and the organization; (b) expected themselves to invest effort in their volunteers; (c) believed their volunteer met their expectations with regard to service users and social workers; (d) trusted their volunteer; (e) perceived their managerial culture, peer culture, and artifacts as encouraging effort investment and inclusion; and (f) received training in working with volunteers. Implications On a theoretical level, the findings expand our knowledge about factors that may impact on social workers’ investment of effort in volunteers and their inclusion. On a methodological level, instruments with good psychometric properties were developed to examine the associations studied and these can serve in future research. On the practical level, the findings highlight the importance of training in working with volunteers and underscore the value for managers and volunteer coordinators discussing the workers’ psychological contract with them and of fostering an organizational culture that encourages effort investment in, and inclusion of, volunteers.

From local to global: the evolution of musical play in secondary schools

The musical play of children in primary school playgrounds has been well documented throughout musicological, sociological and ethnomusicological texts [Bickford, T. (2011). Children's music, MP3 players, and expressive practices at a Vermont elementary school: Media consumption as social organization among schoolchildren (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Columbia University, New York, NY; Campbell, P. (2010). Songs in their heads: Music and its meaning in children's lives. Oxford: Oxford University Press; Marsh, K. (2008). The musical playground: Global tradition and change in children's songs and games. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; Willett, R. (2011). An ethnographic study of preteen girls’ play with popular music on a school playground in the UK. Journal of Children and Media, 5, 341–357]. However, very few studies have examined the role of musical play in the secondary school environment, where participants are typically aged between 11 and 19. This article draws on an ethnographic study of teenagers' musical worlds in Australia and the UK, and examines musical play in their lives through the framework of childhood studies, with particular reference to the role of interpretive reproduction [Corsaro, W. (2011). The sociology of childhood. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage] as a means to construct and consolidate distinct teenage cultures. The article argues that there is evidence of both local and global forms of teenage musical play, and that the intimate relationship between localised peer cultures and a global teenage ‘imaginary’ (Appadurai, A. (1996). Modernity at large: Cultural dimensions of globalization. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press) provides a dynamic structure for the growth and transmission of a culture separate from both adults' and children's worlds.

PESQUISA ETNOGRÁFICA COM CRIANÇAS: CAMINHOS TEÓRICO-METODOLÓGICOS

Esse artigo problematiza questões metodológicas nas pesquisas educacionais realizadas com crianças pequenas. Aborda a pesquisa qualitativa de caráter etnográfico, destacando a observação participante como uma das estratégias mais adequadas para pesquisas realizadas em escolas que atendem crianças nos dois anos iniciais do Ensino Fundamental, ou seja, alunos entre seis e sete anos de idade. Sugere-se que a pesquisa de caráter etnográfico e a observação participante podem diminuir as diferenças existentes entre observador (adulto) e observado (crianças), ao considerar a cultura de pares na infância, possibilitando que o pesquisador insira-se com mais propriedade a realidade cultural de um determinado grupo. Além disso, é preciso respeitar princípios éticos, considerar as especificidades das crianças dessa faixa etária e utilizar várias estratégias para a geração de dados empíricos, de modo a possibilitar-lhes participação mais ativa nas pesquisas educacionais que tem como objeto de estudo a infância. Conclui-se que, dessa forma, seria possível contribuir para que as crianças pequenas sejam reconhecidas como produtoras de conhecimento e sujeitos do processo investigativo.http://dx.doi.org/10.14572/nuances.v25i2.3189

“You don’t need to be mean. We’re friends, Right?”: Young Korean-American children’s conflicts and references to friendship

In the eyes of adults, conflicts between children are often treated as problematic social interactions that should be prevented. This study describes how young Korean–American children’s conflict negotiation was a central part of their peer culture at a Korean heritage language school in the United States. Eleven young Korean–American children attending a Korean heritage language school, their guardians (mothers and grandmothers), two pre-kindergarten classroom teachers, and two school staff members at a Korean heritage language school were recruited as participants. Data were collected through participant observation, formal and informal interviews, and artifact collection during an academic year. The analysis showed that the heritage language school highly valued the traditional Korean culture in many different ways, and that the ways in which the young Korean–American children negotiated conflicts reflected the ideal of group harmony that is highly valued in the Korean cultural community. This study concludes with implications for early childhood educators working with young children from different cultural backgrounds.

“It’s not just you two”: A grounded theory of peer-influenced jealousy as a pathway to dating violence among acculturating Mexican American adolescents.

Objective: To develop a deeper understanding of how jealousy escalates to physical dating violence within Mexican American adolescent romantic relationships. Method: Using grounded theory, 20 focus groups of self-identified Mexican American adolescents (N 64; 15–17 years old) were analyzed by level of acculturation and gender. Results: Three distinct “jealous” typologies resulting in dating violence were identified: normative jealousy (typically highly acculturated or bicultural male and female adolescents), jealous and possessive (typically bicultural male adolescents), and jealous and accepting of dating violence norms (typically low acculturated male adolescents). Across types, jealousy was upheld within a peer culture that constructed loose definitions of cheating behavior and was identified as the most salient relationship issue that held the potential to escalate to extreme forms of anger and resulting violence. Conclusions: Adolescents’ behaviors within their romantic relationships are embedded within a peer environment that legitimizes and fosters relationship jealousy. Jealousy is a particularly salient and troublesome relationship issue among acculturating Mexican American adolescents, who struggle as it is normatively experienced yet initiates processes leading to partner violence. Dating violence preventative interventions need to target both culturally influenced intrapersonal factors (e.g., communication and anger management skills, acceptance of dating violence) as well as peer norms (e.g., partner monitoring) to effect change among Mexican American youth.

The quality of adolescents' peer relationships modulates neural sensitivity to risk taking.

Adolescents' peer culture plays a key role in the development and maintenance of risk-taking behavior. Despite recent advances in developmental neuroscience suggesting that peers may increase neural sensitivity to rewards, we know relatively little about how the quality of peer relations impact adolescent risk taking. In the current 2-year three-wave longitudinal study, we examined how chronic levels of peer conflict relate to risk taking behaviorally and neurally, and whether this is modified by high-quality peer relationships. Forty-six adolescents completed daily diaries assessing peer conflict across 2 years as well as a measure of peer support. During a functional brain scan, adolescents completed a risk-taking task. Behaviorally, peer conflict was associated with greater risk-taking behavior, especially for adolescents reporting low peer support. High levels of peer support buffered this association. At the neural level, peer conflict was associated with greater activation in the striatum and insula, especially among adolescents reporting low peer support, whereas this association was buffered for adolescents reporting high peer support. Results are consistent with the stress-buffering model of social relationships and underscore the importance of the quality of adolescents' peer relationships for their risk taking.

“I will send badass viruses.” Peer threats and the interplay of pretend frames in a classroom dispute

This paper explores threats as they appear in children's everyday dispute interactions. The main purpose is to extend understandings of children's interactions and disputes in order to show how young boys construct threats in pretend frames within a classroom peer dispute by drawing upon the resources of the video game world and a verbally constructed fight. The conceptual and methodological frameworks underpinning the analysis are conversation analysis and Goffman's concept of frame. The analysis focuses on one episode that illustrates how the boys, in the absence of the teacher, invoke, share and switch frames within the dispute. Using pretence, they posit threats and build attack strategies in a video game and in mass fight frames, even though they are in a classroom and unable to complete the threats at that moment. The analysis points out that the pretend threats are different to other sorts of threats and escalate the dispute sequence. Threats in the pretend frame, as in the video game frame, are also opportunities to bring activities outside school into the classroom. Hence, this study also looks at how video game playing is used as a resource when not playing. The implications for broader educational practices exemplify how language and social interaction function in children's peer interactions by uncovering the multifaceted aspects of peer culture, friendship and children's agentive roles in maintaining and creating social and moral order in different realities.

Social Workers Who Work With and Without Volunteers: Comparison of Perceptions, Organisational Culture, Training and Experience

The study’s aim is to better understand what may foster social workers’ work with volunteers, by comparing workers who work with volunteers (n ¼ 118) and those who do not (n ¼ 169) on four dimensions: perceptions of volunteers’status and contribution, organisationalculture,trainingtoworkwithvolunteers,andpersonalexperienceofvolunteering.Thesampleconsistedof287socialworkersintwenty-sixrandomlysampledmunicipal social service departments in Israel. Almost all the sampled workers were Jewish women. A third had a BSW; two-thirds had an MSW or were studying for one. The findings show that social workers who worked with volunteers differed on almost all the dimensions from those who did not. They perceived volunteers as making greater contributions; were more inclined to view volunteering as having no less value than salaried work; tended to perceive their organisation’s managerial and peer cultures as more supportive of work with volunteers; and were more likely to have had experience of volunteering themselves. These differences, albeit small, suggest that greater use of volunteers may be encouraged by raising social workers’ awareness of the value and contribution of volunteers’ work, and by developing an organisational culture that supports work with volunteers.

The acquisition of discourse competence: Evidence from preschoolers' peer talk

In uncovering the mechanisms underlying language acquisition, developmental studies have tended to overlook the acquisitional relevance of child–child discourse. The purpose of this study is to explore the extent to which the acquisition of discourse competence with a special focus on metalanguage can be traced back to supportive interactional structures inherent in preschoolers' peer talk. Thus, a so far neglected acquisitional context is investigated with respect to a domain of language acquisition which is highly relevant for classroom participation and school success. Based on naturally occurring child–child interactions, the analyses examine how the participants establish, maintain, and direct ongoing discourse. The findings argue that peer talk has to be considered a rich acquisitional context offering children a platform to try out means of metalanguage that in adult–child interaction are often reserved for the adult. The results are discussed in relation to the question as to how children may benefit from verbal models supplied by adults but incorporated in and through specific interactional patterns of peer culture.