The ‘space’ of friendship: young children's understandings and expressions of friendship in a reception class

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study has been to explore young children's understandings and experiences of friendship as these manifested in children's behaviours, in a reception class setting. Drawing on an evolutionary, ecological framework, friendship is seen as not only the expression and further development of social understandings and cognitive advances; more than that, making and maintaining friends is seen as an evolutionary trait and a ‘drive’ to relate to similarly minded others. Through ‘niche picking’, children select the environments and opportunities that suit them in order to develop their dispositions and individual traits. The research employed a participatory design in order to capture the children's views and experiences. It took place in a reception class setting, where children's everyday experiences were observed and discussed with them. The study identified six themes of analysis and offered some suggestions about creating enabling educational environments that allow the ‘space’ for niche construction.

KEYWORDS:

• Children's friendships
• intentionalities
• niche construction
• niche picking
• participatory research
• social understanding

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Marianna Papadopoulou specializes in the area of children's development and learning. Her PhD thesis adopted a holistic approach (Gestalt structure) in order to examine young children's learning dispositions and experiences. As a qualified teacher, Dr Papadopoulou started her career in early years settings. Upon completion of her PhD she moved to academia and has developed and taught a number of modules in child development, psychology of education, psychology of adolescence and learning theory. Her research so far has looked at children's learning experiences in both formal and informal settings. She has studied children's evolutionary traits, dispositions and ways of ‘intending’ towards their world as these manifested in behaviours and interactions, such as in play and friendships.