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Preschool girls as rule breakers: Negotiating moral orders of justice and fairness

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Childhood: A journal of global child research

Published online on

Abstract

This study examines how preschool girls organize situated board games. Examining video data using an ethnomethodological approach, we focus on moral work-in-interaction in instances where the girls negotiate rule violations. It was found that the girls oriented to diverse forms of moral orders, shifting between a competitive/justice-based order and a socio-moral order of reciprocal relations. Argumentative moves of cheating were used as communicative resources both to control moral transgressions and to gain personal advantages. Overall, the analysis shows that preschool girls are active moral agents in the making and breaking of rules and in the negotiation of complex moral orders.