This article examines expressions of difference and sameness and peer relations among children (aged 5–7) in school. The article concludes that children do not generally relate sameness or difference to their peer relations or to ethnicity or gender. Furthermore, the article demonstrates that the school setting plays a crucial role for children’s peer interactions: The purpose of school activities directs children’s expressions of difference and sameness, and the structures for peer interaction enable some relations and restrict others.
AndersonS (1995) Chronic Proximity and the Management of Difference: A Study of the Danish School Practice of “Klasse.”København, Denmark: Institut for Antropologi, Københavns Universitet.
2.
AndersonS (2000) I en klasse for sig. København, Denmark: Gyldendalske Boghandel, Nordisk forlag A/S.
3.
BaceteFJGPerrindGMSchneiderBH, et al. (2014) Effects of school on the well-being of children and adolescents. In: Ben-AriehACasasFFrønesIKorbinJE (eds) Handbook of Child Well-Being: Theories, Methods and Policies in Global Perspective. Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 1251–1305.
4.
BattenMGirling-ButcherS (1981) Perceptions of the Quality of School Life: A Case Study of Schools and Students. Hawthorn, VIC, Australia: Australian Council for Educational Research.
ConnollyP (2002) Racism, Gender Identities and Young Children: Social Relations in a Multi-Ethnic, Inner City Primary School. London: Routledge.
7.
CorsaroWA (1985) Friendship and Peer Culture in the Early Years. Westport, CT: Ablex Publishing.
8.
CorsaroWAEderD (1990) Children’s peer cultures. Annual Review of Sociology16: 197–220.
9.
DunnJ (2004) Children’s Friendships: The Beginnings of Intimacy. Oxford: Blackwell.
10.
EpsteinJLKarweitN (2014) Friends in School: Patterns of Selection and Influence in Secondary Schools. New York: Academic Press.
11.
GilliamL (2009) De umulige børn og det ordentlige menneske: Identitet, ballade og muslimske fællesskaber blandt etniske minoritetsbørn. Aarhus, Denmark: Aarhus Universitetsforlag.
12.
HøjlundS (2001) Social identities of children in different institutional contexts. Outlines. Critical Practice Studies3(2): 49–60.
13.
HviidKP (1999) Til lykke: Børneliv i SFO og skole. København, Denmark: Danmarks Pædagogiske Institut.
14.
IqbalHNealSVincentC (2017) Children’s friendships in super-diverse localities: Encounters with social and ethnic difference. Childhood24(1): 128–142.
15.
JamesA (1993) Childhood Identities: Self and Social Relationships in the Experience of the Child. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
16.
MandellN (1988) The least-adult role in studying children. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography16(4): 433–467.
17.
Schjellerup NielsenH (2005) Samvær og marginalisering: Socialt samspil i skolelivet. København, Denmark: Hans Reitzel.
18.
SedanoLJ (2012) On the irrelevance of ethnicity in children’s organization of their social world. Childhood19(3): 375–388.
19.
TheodorouE (2011) I’ll race you to the top: Othering from within—Attitudes among Pontian children in Cyprus towards other immigrant classmates. Childhood18(2): 242–260.
20.
ThorneB (1993) Gender Play: Girls and Boys in School. Buckingham: Open University Press.
21.
WarmingH (2011) Getting under their skins? Accessing young children’s perspectives through ethnographic fieldwork. Childhood18(1): 39–53.
