Children's use of multiple categorisations in practice in a multicultural setting.

Woods, Ruth

Abstract

Little is known about whether and how children combine categories of race, ethnicity, language and religion in multicultural settings where more than one of these dimensions is salient. Ethnographic data from a multicultural London primary school found that children usually organised multiple categories congruently (e.g. 'If you're Indian you are Sikh'), despite strong opposition from teachers. This congruent organisation may originate in an undifferentiated experience of categories in the family, and/or represent the best 'fit' with a local population in which categories were correlated. Children used congruent organisation to infer peers' group membership, which may amplify intergroup contrasts.

Citation

WOODS, R. 2018. Children's use of multiple categorisations in practice in a multicultural setting. Children and society, [online], 32(5), pages 357-367. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1111/chso.12254

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 16, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Nov 17, 2017
• Publication Date: Sep 30, 2018
• Deposit Date: Oct 19, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 18, 2019
• Journal: Children and society
• Print ISSN: 0951-0605
• Electronic ISSN: 1099-0860
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 32
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 357-367
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/chso.12254
• Keywords: Children; Multiculturalism; Multiple categorisation; Ethnicity; Religion
• Public URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/2557