Children’s social organization and peer socializing practices in the classroom: a study on the peer group in contemporary heterogeneous schools

The study investigates children’s peer practices in two primary schools in Italy, focusing on the ordinary and the Italian L2 classroom. The study draws from video-ethnographic research and sets out from the paradigm of language socialization, focusing thus on children’s language and social interaction. As the analysis illustrates, children deploy various verbal and non-verbal resources to (a) co-construct and negotiate the social organization of the peer group and (b) socialize their classmates to expected ways of behaving at school. In the discussion it is argued that these kinds of practices are relevant to children’s social inclusion or exclusion in the classroom. On the basis of this appraisal, the study advances few implications for teachers’ professional practice.