This paper analyzes the impact of adults’ interactive moves and strategies on children’s participation and agency at dinnertime in two Italian residential care facilities, one of the most widely used alternative care life-context for children and youth coming from vulnerable families. Participants are 14 children and 11 educators living in two residential care facilities in Rome (Italy). Adopting an interactional and multimodal analytic approach, this paper focuses on two dinnertime activities: the routine activity of praying before eating and the very frequent one of talking about rules and transgressions. The comparative analysis of the two facilities shows how, in stable patterns of adult-child interactions recurring across different activities in the same facility, adults’ strategies and interactive maneuvers differently impact on children’s participation and agency and consequent socialization practices. In the conclusion, we emphasize the relevance and implications of this study for either research in educational sciences and for professionals operating in alternative care and related fields.

本文分析了两个意大利居民照料机构中成年人的互动动作和策略对儿童晚餐时参与和代理的影响，这是针对弱势家庭儿童和青少年的最广泛使用的替代照料生活背景之一。参加者是居住在罗马（意大利）两个居民看护设施中的14名儿童和11名教育者。本文采用一种互动和多模式的分析方法，着重于两个晚餐时间的活动：进食前祈祷的常规活动和谈论规则和过犯的非常频繁的活动。对这两个机构的比较分析显示，在同一机构中，跨不同活动重复发生的稳定的成人与儿童互动模式，成人的策略和互动策略对儿童的参与，代理和随之而来的社交活动产生不同的影响。在结论中，我们强调了本研究对于教育科学研究以及在替代护理和相关领域开展业务的专业人员的相关性和意义。