Middle class Colombian children’s evaluations of personal, moral, and social-conventional interactions in the classroom

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate Colombian children’s evaluations of locus of control, compliance, teacher legitimacy, and teacher methods of conflict resolution regarding personal, moral, and social-conventional interactions in the classroom setting. Sixty-three middle class Colombian children at 3 years (n = 20), 5 years (n = 24), and 7 years (n = 19) of age, almost evenly divided by gender, were individually interviewed. With increasing age, children judged that children, not teachers, should make decisions (locus of control) about choice of activities and choice of playmates, and for some social-conventional issues as well. The vast majority of children, with increasing age, preferred that teachers use negotiation and explanation instead of punishment when responding to all types of conflicts, personal, moral, and social-conventional ones. Colombian children’s reasoning about personal, moral, and social-conventional events was not strictly “hierarchical” or “authority-oriented” as might be expected from recent cultural theorising.