title: Releasing Effect of Individual Potential: Formation of Productive Collective and Children's Self-Transcendence in a Chinese School.
abstract: We describe the intricate relations between social demand structures and their role in facilitation of individual development of children and teachers in a Chinese classroom. The relationship of an individual to the immediate social group is further qualified by the inclusion in a collective which enables the participants to transform their individual self-structures through taking on social roles in everyday collective activities, which release further potential for their individual development. We describe that releasing effect in the case of an intervention program in a Chinese school for the children of rural migrants re-settled in a city, demonstrating gradually how the inter-individual competitive orientation promoted by autocratic teaching style becomes transformed into collective good oriented joint actions towards excellence in educational endeavors (Jiti). The productive nature of the Jiti makes an ecology with multiple nested and open systems, in which every group and student is producer and consumer of each other, and personal self-transcendence is actualized in the process. The releasing effect is demonstrated through observing the co-emergence of new forms of progressive conduct and new problems, presented in pupils' positive participation in activities. The description of the intervention in a Chinese school provides us with insight on how concrete social inclusion frameworks with the underpinning Chinese philosophy of "acting up to trends" can prevent the emergence of direct animosities and lead to new integration of self and society.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Aruna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China. xwli@psy.ecnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xiao-Wen
authors.initials: XW
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D002657:Child Development; D002681:China; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D006126:Group Processes; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012574:Schools; D012919:Social Behavior; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D014171:Transients and Migrants / Q000523:psychology
keywords: Acting up to trends; Potential development; Releasing effect; Self-transcendence