Peer relationships and internally persuasive discourse

This study explored Bakhtin's theories of dialogism focusing on the concept of internally persuasive discourse in a group of five 4- to 5-year-old children, when they engage in conversations about the theory of the cello's sound production in a naturalistic preschool setting. The author conducted participant-observation in the conversations with the children, minimizing authority on the flow of conversations to allow internally persuasive discourse among them. The findings of qualitative analyses, based upon the grounded theory approach (Glaser & Strauss, 1967), generated three themes: 1) recognizing new pals that have similar ideas as mine [the child's]; 2) dealing with conflicting ideas between best friends; 3) continuing peer interaction to understand and test different ideas. The current study has implications for an early childhood educator's endeavor to build a respectful and intellectually rigorous classroom environment for young children.