Da Violência aos Conflitos e à Participação no Recreio Escolar: Retratos de Conceções e Práticas de Género entre Crianças do 1.º Ciclo do Ensino Básico

In contemporary societies, among contradictory discourses either affirm children's agency and participation or their vulnerability to risks and dangers, the mediatisation of childhood has associated the notion of child risk with violence and both with school, generalising the idea that ‘all’ playgrounds and ‘all’ conflicts are violent. This adult view calls for analyses including children's perspectives on their experiences in the school playground. Supported by the Sociology of Childhood, Gender Studies and Studies of School Violence and Conflict, and the analysis of ethnographic data with children from a 4th grade class in the playground of a private urban school will be presented i) conflict situations that occurred there; and analysed ii) their conceptions of violence and conflict; iii) intergender conflict episodes and the meanings attributed to them and iv) the socio-moral and political competences mobilised when they dealt with and resolved them. The results point to the presence of gender conflicts with various meanings, especially those of injustice and provocation; children's conceptions of violence and conflict covering polysemic and interrelated meanings and practices for dealing with and resolving conflicts based on argumentation, dialogue, alliances, as well as distancing and exclusion among children, with socio-moral and political competences at stake that are essential for participation in social life and exercising citizenship.