Relationships with peers during early childhood constitute an important development context for children.  In these contexts, children acquire a wide range of skills, behaviours, attitudes and experiences that influences their adaptations in their life span.

Studies have shown that children's current and long-term social-emotional development, cognitive and academic development are clearly affected by the child's social experiences with peers and adults. There are several studies underpinning the significance of teacher promoting peer relations.  But how and in what ways do teachers strive to foster peer relations in the classroom context is much an unexplored area.  The present study aims to contribute to this gap in the understanding of the teacher’s role in fostering peer relations. 

 The research project is situated within the social constructivism and social cultural perspective.  Social cultural theory provides an account of learning and development as a culturally and socially mediated process, which is well suited to research examining the cultural and social milieu of the classroom.  By Combining the concepts of Vygotsky’s Scaffolding, Zone of Proximal Development and Rogoff 1995) three planes of analysis (at the Community, Interpersonal and Personal planes); complemented with a focus on social context within Lave and Wenger’s(1991) Communities of Practice, the theoretical framework provides effective lens to understand teachers/early childhood professionals role in fostering peer relations in the classroom context. Classroom observations and study findings will be presented using the case studies from both the countries.

Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger (1991) Situated Learning. Legitimate peripheral participation, Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press. Rogoff, B. M. (1990). Apprenticeship in thinking: Cognitive development in social context. New York: Oxford University Press. Rogoff, B. (2003) The cultural nature of human development. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Stake, R. (2005) Qualitative case studies. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The Sage handbook of qualitative research (3rd ed., pp. 446). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind and society: The development of higher mental processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press