Appropriating Cultural Conceptions of Childhood: Participation in Conversation

Participating in conversation involves the co-construction of ideas, folk-beliefs and narratives concerning childhood, where young children learn to display versions of themselves in context. Using conversation analysis, this study looks in detail at several samples of talk of two British children, at ages ranging between 2 and 10 years, as they interact with other children, and their parents and grandparents. The article considers representations or discourses of childhood evident in these everyday conversations, and the ways in which children position themselves with regard to such discourses. Learning how to 'be' a child is likely to involve taking on board 'child-subject' positionings available in everyday talk. The conclusion discusses these observations in relation to contemporary accounts of the child subject-self and discourse.