Conversational asymmetry and the child's perspective in developmental and educational research

Abstract

Developmental research and educational practice involve conversations between children and adults. The conversational aspects of these situations have rarely been occasions for reflection. Discrepancies between the child's expectations and the adult's intentions can lead to misunderstanding, for example, at school or during a research interview. Communication can only succeed when the interlocutors agree about the ground rules relevant to the situation. When researchers and educators communicate with children, it is advisable that they understand the children's perspective on the interaction. In this article I argue that analysing adult-child and child-child interactions are particularly informative for shedding light on children's perspectives. Methodological aspects of interaction research are discussed. An overview of my research shows that, by clarifying the rules and conventions of the interaction, adults may help children to perform successfully. My interaction studies of pretend play and of students' discussions at school demonstrate that children reflect on the rules of interaction and make efforts to construct the communication tools they need for participating as competent partners in interactions with others.

How second‐grade students internalize rules during teacher–student transactions: A case study

“…Although the students' internalization of rules was related to the search for shared motives and the explicit statement of them – that is, agreements between teacher and students (Elbers, 2004; Frazier & Sterling, 2005) – the process was also related to the teacher's persuasive actions. The teacher's explanations to and negotiations with the class were completed, supported and at times even replaced by modes of presenting or recalling the rules without justifications, reasons, motives, explanations, or arguments.…”

The Analysis of Implicit Premises within Children’s Argumentative Inferences

“…Other studies show that there is a great deal of information that adults leave implicit and take for granted, albeit it is not necessarily accessible to children. Elbers (2004) draws attention to the importance of the conversational asymmetry that might lead to neglecting children's perspectives and underestimating their skills. If the child is considered a partner in conversation rather than an object of research, a different account of children's reasoning skills emerges (Pramling and Säljö 2015;Mauritzson and Säljö 2001).…”

La lectura conjunta y la interacción entre adultos y niños de 3-5 años

“…En este campo, se han realizado indagaciones sobre métodos de observación y posibles causas de la interacción adulto-niño (Schiller, 1999; McNaughton, 2009), la perspectiva del niño en relación con las interacciones adulto-niño y niño-niño (Elbers, 2004;Martínez, 1987 …”