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Bronfenbrenner Ecological Theory

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Ecological systems theory: This theory looks at a child’s development within the context of the system of relationships that form his or her environment. Bronfenbrenner’s theory defines complex “layers” of environment, each having an effect on a child’s development. This theory has recently been renamed “bioecological systems theory” to emphasize that a child’s own biology is a primary environment fueling her development. In this essay I will be focusing on the interaction between factors in the child’s maturing biology, his immediate family/community environment, and the societal landscape fuels and steers his development. Changes or conflict in any one layer will ripple throughout other layers. To study a child’s development then, we must …show more content…

Through the Bronfenbrenner Ecological Theory, Bronfenbrenner stressed the importance of studying a child in the context of multiple environments, also known as ecological systems in the attempt to understand his development. A child typically finds himself simultaneously enmeshed in different ecosystems, from the most intimate home ecological system moving outward to the larger school system and the most expansive system which is society and culture. Each of these systems inevitably interact with and influence each other in every aspect of the child’s life. The Urie Bronfenbrenner model organizes contexts of development into five levels of external influence. The levels are categorized from the most intimate level to the broadest. The Bronfenbrenner Model: Microsystem The microsystem is the smallest and most immediate environment in which the child lives. As such, the microsystem comprises the daily home, school or daycare, peer group or community environment of the …show more content…

He says that technology has changed our society, and while we are taking great pains to safeguard the physical environment from the damage done by a technology, we have spent no resources to provide similar safeguards to the damage done to our societal environment. (Henderson, 1995). Our economy has shifted from an industrial model to a technological model, yet the patterns of the workplace have continued to rely on the factory work

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