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Learning to be an outsider: Peer stigmatization in kindergarten

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Abstract

This article reports findings of a naturalistic study of stigmatization processes discovered in the peer interactions of a kindergarten class. The study was undertaken from an interactionist theoretical perspective, and data were gathered using passive participant observation, ethnographic interviewing, and the collection of unobtrusive measures. The study was begun with the broad goal of recording and analyzing child-to-child interactions in a kindergarten peer group. As early data were analyzed, the behavior of a particular child, Lester, and the behavior of other children in relation to Lester became the focus of the study. Further data collection and analyses were designed to reveal patterns of interaction within the peer group which in effect stigmatized Lester as an outsider. The findings of the study are analytic descriptions of Lester's “rule breaking” behaviors in relations with peers and peers' “group responses” in relations with him. Deviance as a socially constructed phenomenon and implications of being labeled an outsider by child-peers are discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Education, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Tennessee, 37916, Knoxville, TN

    J. Amos Hatch

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  1. J. Amos Hatch
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Hatch, J.A. Learning to be an outsider: Peer stigmatization in kindergarten. Urban Rev 20, 59–72 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01112045

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