‘The scream’: Meanings and excesses in early childhood settings

Young children’s screams have been misunderstood at best and at worst subjected to discipline. Drawing upon data from an ethnography in a London nursery, this article suggests that not only are screams part of the ‘soundscape’, but they are overflowing with meanings including about inequities in the social order of educational settings. These meanings are afforded by the physical and sociocultural aspects of voice quality, as well as overcivilizing efforts. Suggesting an approach of methodological answerability in listening to ‘the scream’, the article considers voice quality in relation to what matters and as a mode of potential transgressive and political articulation.