Patterns of interactive behavior in a multicultural school context

This paper is an empirical research based on observational methodology. It is an idiographic research with a mixed observational design of low intervention, of the following type: monitoring/nomothetical/multidimensional. We used a tool created in situ for the systematic multidimensional register of the complex occurrence of several types of behavioural events in real time, which combines the format of field investigation with the system of categories. The reliability of the observation tool is obtained through the researcher-observer's agreement with him- or herself. Our aim is to study the social relationships between first-grade peer students in a multicultural context. We present some structures of seeking social closeness, help and cooperation among children of similar and different cultures, which were discovered through the detection and analysis of temporal patterns of the interactive situation of boys and girls who were observed during their academic and leisure activities in the natural context of their school.