13-14 November 2015
Samara, Russian
At its biannual open academic events the Institute for Research on Social Phenomena, Russia brings together scholars and practitioners, who join their efforts to develop ideas explaining the functioning of social processes and phenomena. The focus of the coming conference is the principles and mechanisms of social expectations both in society in general, and in the educational environment in particular.
A possible approach to social expectations is to define them as an anticipatory reflection, which is based mainly on the subject’s social attitudes, gender, ethnic and social stereotypes, as well as on the actual needs of the subject regarding the object of reflection. An example of social expectations at work is the ideal student model formed in the consciousness of a teacher. A model ideal student confirms the teacher in his/her role of a successful mentor. Not only does that teacher perceive students who fit the ideal as good, but he/she also sees them as agreeable, decent, intelligent, good people in general. Children who fit the opposite model of ‘bad students’ are perceived as indifferent, aggressive and on the whole bad people, they thus provoke negative emotions in the teacher. The image of an ideal student turns into a stereotype expectation that affects the teacher’s attitude towards the student’s answers, the general character of the guidance given to the student in class, and the statements made by the teacher towards the student. There occurs a paradox, in actual fact during class discussions and oral tests teachers allocate lagging students less attention and time as compared to the ‘good’ ones, however under the influence of ‘stereotype expectations’ the teachers have the impression that they spend most of their time guiding the lagging students.
We suppose that social expectations belong to the actually operating factors of the pedagogical process, because they show themselves not only in the beliefs of the participants, but also very strongly in their behaviour. Resulting from a conscious and unconscious attitude, they frequently contribute exactly to the expected result.
We invite conference participants to discuss the ways of identification and the methods of analysis of typical social expectation of pedagogical process participants, to determine the mechanisms and the quality of the impact of the expectations on the educational results.
The main themes covered by the conference:
– The psychological mechanisms of social expectations formation and operation.
– Social expectations of educational process subjects.
– Theory of social expectations. Social expectations as the element of the social space structure. Social expectations towards the school as a social institution.
Participants and papers:
The conference is open to all interested in the topic, including scholars, students and practitioners.
Papers from all branches of humanities and social sciences are welcome. Papers written in the interdisciplinary and international comparative perspective are particularly encouraged.
Participation Fees:
Participation in the conference and the publication of papers are free of charge.
The cost of postage of the conference proceedings is to be covered by the participants.
How to apply:
– Complete the online application form at www.socialphenomena.org
– Submit the paper proposal of approximately 1.5 pages
– Upon notification of acceptance submit the full paper (about 10 pages).
Important dates
15 September, 2015 – deadline for applications and submission of paper proposals;
20 September, 2015 – author notification about the acceptance of paper proposals;
20 October, 2015 – deadline for submission of full papers.