Exclusion in Girls' Peer Groups: Ethnographic Analysis of Language Practices on the Playground

Many of our models of female behavior are the legacy of a ‘two cultures’ perspective on moral development and have investigated children''s reasoning about moral situations rather than moral action itself. By examining the practices that make up the life world of a particular social group we can investigate how morality is lodged within the actions and stances that children take up in interaction with their peers. Forms of social exclusion in girls'' groups call into question the notion that girls are fundamentally interested in cooperative interaction and a morality based on principles of relatedness, care, and equity. The argument is based on ethnographic study of a girls'' peer group of mixed ethnicities and social classes in an elementary school in Southern California carried out over a three-year period.