Campus Location
Abilene Campus
Date of Award
Spring 5-12-2018
Document Type
Manuscript
Department
Teacher Education
Degree Name
Master of Education in Teaching and Learning
First Advisor
Jill Scott
Second Advisor
Andrew Huddleston
Abstract
The school classroom is an inherently social setting where students interact with each other for seven hours, five days a week. The purpose of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of how students select their friends and how social groups begin to form and emerge. The author collected data through student and teacher interviews, dictated drawings, a sociogram, and a parent survey. After analyzing the data by using the constant comparative method, the author found four major themes. The first was that each social clique came equipped with unique characteristics that the clique members embodied. Second, there were countless social learning opportunities embedded within every interaction. Third, the decision-making process was very dynamic and constantly changing. Fourth, young children value very similar things in friendships. This study may provide useful information to other educators who are trying to figure out the different social dynamics present in their classrooms.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Shake, Denae, "The Emergence of Friendships and Social Groups in Kindergarten" (2018). Masters of Education in Teaching and Learning. 4.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/metl/4
Included in
Early Childhood Education Commons, Elementary Education Commons, Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education Commons