In pursuit of some appreciation: assessment and group membership in children’s second stories

Maryanne Theobald; Edward Reynolds

doi:10.1515/text-2015-0006

Article

In pursuit of some appreciation: assessment and group membership in children’s second stories

Maryanne Theobald is Senior Lecturer in Education at Queensland University of Technology, (QUT). Her research interests include social and moral orders, participation, play and games, children’s disputes and friendships. Her methodological expertise includes ethnomethodology, conversation analysis, and video-stimulated accounts. She has co-edited an ethnomethodological collection, Disputes in Everyday Life (Emerald). Maryanne is on the editorial board of Research on Children’s Social Interaction (ROCSI), Equinox.
and
Edward Reynolds is Lecturer in the Department of Communication at the University of New Hampshire (UNH). His research explores conflict, lying, and the embodied management of membership. He employs ethnomethodology, combining conversation analysis, membership categorization analysis, discursive psychology, and the analysis of embodied interaction. He is a contributor to a Sage methods textbook Advances in Membership Categorisation Analysis.

Published/Copyright: April 24, 2015

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From the journal Text & Talk Volume 35 Issue 3

Abstract

Group membership is central to social interaction. Within peer groups, social hierarchies and affiliations are matters to which members seriously attend (Corsaro 2014). Studies of peer groups highlight how status is achieved through oppositional actions. This paper examines the way in which competition and collaboration in a children’s peer group accomplishes status during the production and management of “second stories” (Sacks 1992). We present analysis of the interaction of young boys in a preparatory year playground who are engaged in a single instance of storytelling “rounds.” Analysis highlights the pivotal role of members’ contributions, assessments, and receipts in a series of second stories that enact a simultaneously competitive and collaborative local order.

Keywords: second stories; assessment; assessable; children’s peer culture; conversation analysis; membership categorization analysis; talk-in-interaction

About the authors

Maryanne Theobald

Maryanne Theobald is Senior Lecturer in Education at Queensland University of Technology, (QUT). Her research interests include social and moral orders, participation, play and games, children’s disputes and friendships. Her methodological expertise includes ethnomethodology, conversation analysis, and video-stimulated accounts. She has co-edited an ethnomethodological collection, Disputes in Everyday Life (Emerald). Maryanne is on the editorial board of Research on Children’s Social Interaction (ROCSI), Equinox.

Edward Reynolds

Edward Reynolds is Lecturer in the Department of Communication at the University of New Hampshire (UNH). His research explores conflict, lying, and the embodied management of membership. He employs ethnomethodology, combining conversation analysis, membership categorization analysis, discursive psychology, and the analysis of embodied interaction. He is a contributor to a Sage methods textbook Advances in Membership Categorisation Analysis.

Acknowledgments

This paper complements a second paper from the same data set showing how children’s competence is achieved within their peer group during children’s storytelling (Theobald 2015). Maryanne Theobald acknowledges a fellowship from the Excellence in Research in Early Years Education Collaborative Research Network and Queensland University of Technology. We thank the children, teachers, and Department of Education, Training and Employment (Queensland) who enabled this study to be conducted.

Appendix: Transcription notation

Conversational data has been transcribed using the system developed by Gail Jefferson (2004). The following notational features were used in the transcript. The punctuation marks depict the characteristics of speech production, not the conventions of grammar.

did.: A full stop indicates a stopping fall in tone.
here,: A comma indicates a continuing intonation.
hey?: A question mark indicates a rising intonation.
together!: An exclamation mark indicates an animated tone.
you: Underline indicates emphasis.
¿: An inverted question mark indicates slightly rising intonation.
°hey°: Quiet speech
(): The talk is not audible.
(house): Transcriber’s guess for the talk
...: Indicates that intervening turns at talk have been omitted
(.): Untimed pause
(0.3): Number in second and tenths of a second indicates the length of an interval.
So:::rry: Colon represents a sound stretch.
Dr-dirt: A single dash indicates a noticeable cut-off of the prior word or sound.
hhh: Indicates an out-breath
.hhh: A dot prior to “h” indicates an in-breath.
[hello]: Brackets indicate overlapped speech.
<stop >: Speech is delivered slower than normal.
>come<: Speech is delivered faster than normal.
((angry)): Transcribers notes on the talk and scene
*funny*: Smiley voice
$words$: Smiley voice
=: Rush-through
CAPS: Louder than surrounding talk
↑: Marked shift in pitch upward
↓: Marked shift in pitch downward

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Published Online: 2015-4-24

Published in Print: 2015-5-1

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https://doi.org/10.1515/text-2015-0006

Keywords for this article

second stories; assessment; assessable; children’s peer culture; conversation analysis; membership categorization analysis; talk-in-interaction