Classroom Community and Peer Culture in Kindergarten

This study reflects a naturalistic, interpretive 5-month study in a public school morning kindergarten regarding the children’s social development and creation of a peer culture during the transitional months into public education. The main focus of the research was the children’s perspectives on these transitions and their evolving classroom community and peer culture in response to the teacher, classroom and school environment. This study captures the dynamic and complex flow of activity that occurs in classrooms, the give and take of relationships, and the agency that children take in developing peer culture as one piece of community. Elements of the peer culture that are foregrounded include secondary adjustments as realized in clean-up strategies, protecting play materials over time, and hypothetical competition with the afternoon kindergarten class.