Schoolyard suspect: Blame negotiations, category work and conflicting versions among children and teachers

Abstract

This chapter examines the divergent local moral orders constructed in peer group interactions versus in teacher-student interactions when teachers become responsible for and actively take part in children’s conflict resolutions and management of problematic conduct in play activities on the schoolyard. The analysis draws on video recordings from a particular dramatic event on the schoolyard, which was triggered when a group of boys found out that a girl had lost most of her Pokémon cards. The analysis details the ways in which contrasting moral versions and descriptions of a problematic event develops in children’s peer group interactions and in teacher-child interactions. Particular attention is on how blame is attributed and negotiated and how membership categorizations are used to undercut, realign or discredit an account among children versus adults. This has a specific relevance for the omission of blame worthy actions and for how the teachers deconstruct the conflicting versions that develop in the children’s peer group interactions to build an alternative version of events that enforce an asymmetrical moral order of the school.