Laughter, excitement, and suspense in preschool : Choreographing emotional stances as a multiparty achievement

Abstract: Most research on emotions, including that which takes a social perspective, is directed at negative emotions and their manifestation in social situations that involve conflicts, disputes, and arguments. This thesis instead aims to address children’s heightened positive emotions and their interactional functions within the peer group and in learning encounters with teachers in preschool. Theoretically and methodologically, the thesis adopts a multimodal interaction analysis perspective. The data comprises 40 hours of video-ethnographic recordings of everyday activities conducted in a regular preschool in Sweden. The participants include 6 teachers and 50 children (ages 1-5, girls and boys). The following research questions underpin the thesis: How do young children invite co-participation and reciprocate laughter in multiparty interactions with peers and teachers? How do young children invoke excitement displays to initiate joint attention in multiparty peer settings in preschool? How do teachers choreograph suspense practices as a means to organize participation in educational activities? The thesis highlights the communicative and social affordances and challenges that young children encounter when interacting in large groups in preschool settings. The thesis contributes with knowledge in a largely unexplored area, i.e., heightened emotional displays in children’s peer groups, and adult-child interactions.