The deviant behavior: the problem of methodological understanding of the norm and its socio-educational representations

Abstract

The article examines the methodological and substantive problems of understanding the educational norm, reveals the essence and ambiguity of the consequences of the educational activity subjects’ deviant behavior. The relevance of the topic of the theoretical research is determined by the fact that in the modern scientific literature devoted to the study of deviant behavior, the considered subject field as a rule does not extend to the field of pedagogical activity, its norms and rules, while this type of activity is a critically significant aspect of society that has a clearly defined specifics and ambiguity of its social and personal consequences. The object of research is the phenomenon of deviant behavior, the subject at hand are the forms of its manifestation in the field of educational activity. The purpose of the article is to conceptualize the essence of educational deviation. In order to achieve this goal, the authors address the following theoretical challenges: clarification of the meaning of the concept of «norm», determining its specifics in the field of educational activity, studying the ambiguous consequences of educational deviations. The conducted research is based on the use of dialectical methodological tools that allow to understand the subject in its integrity and unity of opposite sides and development trends. The article justifies the understanding of the educational norm as a synthesis of organizational regulations of this type of activity and considers the possibilities of constructive deviations from this norm aimed at achieving socially or individually significant pedagogical results. The theoretical significance of this approach avoids simplification and one-sidedness in understanding the ratio of norm and deviation in the field of pedagogy, while practical significance lays in the possibility of its methodological use in the process of creating organizational norms of the educational activities.