"I'm Telling!" Exploring Sources of Peer Authority During K–2 Collaborative Mathematics Activity

• In Event: Transformative Language Routines, Student Authority, and Student Participation

Abstract

This paper draws from a study on the construction of authority relations among K-2 students across 22 videos of collaborative mathematics partnerships. Through three vignettes, we illustrate how a shift away from adult sources of authority and toward student sources enabled sustained engagement in the face of peer resistance. The kindergarten and first grade vignettes show how students’ deployment of adult authority through the perceived threat of getting in trouble can overpower peer resistance and shut down possibilities for shared work. The second grade vignette shows how peer resistance was productively sustained when the threat of getting in trouble was less directly connected to the teacher, and students positioned themselves and one another with intellectual authority.

Authors

• Jennifer Marie Langer-Osuna, Stanford University

• Rosa Chavez, Stanford University

• Faith Kwon, Stanford University

• Jim Malamut, Stanford University

• Kimiko E. Lange, Stanford University

• Emma Gargroetzi, Stanford University