How is hierarchy established in peer interaction? A CA study of preschool children during free play

Abstract: The aim of this study is to examine how children create hierarchy in peer interaction when playing freely in a preschool setting. The research question that this study sets out to answers is: How is hierarchy established by four preschool children during free play through the use of preference? The main theory of importance is the New Sociology of Childhood whose key argument is that children are a part of the social culture they jointly construct by playing together. Conversation Analysis was used to analyze the material by mapping out the uses of preference. This study is thus an explorative and qualitative sociolinguistic study. The material was collected through videotaping four children in a preschool setting and the chosen sequences represent a heavy use of preference and a focus on disputes and conflict. The results showed that the children used dispreferred answers to reject and challenge their peers in order to reject and deny their rights e.g. ownership or decide the rules of the game. Dispreferred answers were also used to signal alignment to one or more of their peers by rejecting someone else, thus empowering one member and rejecting another. Preferred answers were mainly used to signal alignment, or to accept a suggestion which in turn affected the hierarchical structure through the distribution of support.