Ecological Lens
Sandy Week
EDRS 753
Ecology
The branch of biology dealing with the relations and interactions
between organisms and their environment, including other organisms…
Examples…
Predator vs. Prey – regulation of numbers in species
Examples…
Symbiosis - interaction between two different organisms usually to the
advantage of each
Examples…
Competition for resources
Diversity
Person:Environment
Walsh, W. B., (1936)
Actual fit between an individual's or collective group's needs, aspirations,
and capacities and the qualities and operations of their social and
physical environments within particular cultural and historical contexts.
• Level of fit
• Adaptedness
• Perceived level of fit
Ecology of Human Development
Urie Bronfenbrenner (1979)
Ecological systems theory is an approach to study of human
development that consists of the “scientific study of the progressive,
mutual accommodation, throughout the life course, between an active,
growing human being, and the changing properties of the immediate
settings in which the developing person lives, as this process is affected
by the relations between these settings, and by the larger contexts in
which the settings are embedded”
Example Article
Ehrenreich, H., Reeves, P. M., Corley, S.,
& Orpinas, P. (2012)
With Graduation in Sight: Perceptions of
High- and Low-Aggression Students of
the Journey to High School Completion
• Used Bronfenbrenner’s ecological
model & identified within each level
of the ecological model (micro-,
meso-, exo-, and macrosystems
Campus Climate
The transactional relationship of the social & physical environment
Example Book
Instead of linear thinking…
Keiny, S. (2002) Ecological Thinking: A new approach to
educational change (book)
A community of learners which are autonomous and self-organizing
Ecological Learning Theory
Graham Davey (1989)
Instead of operant conditioning…
Uses a developmental or social
cognitive view
Example Article
Brown, E. L., Kanny, M. A., Johnson B. (2014)
“I Am Who I Am Because of Here!”
School Settings as a Mechanism of Change in Establishing High-Risk
Adolescents’ Academic Identities (article)
• The study included “multiple perspectives of various school
community members”
• The school environment serves as a mechanism of change in
supporting early adolescents’ academic identities
Citations
Banning, J. (Producer). (2013). Origins. The Campus Ecologist. Retrieved from www.campusecologist.com.
Bronfenbrenner, U., 1917-2005. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University
Press.
Brown, E. L., Kanny, M. A., Johnson B., “I am who I am because of here!”: School settings as a mechanism of change in establishing high-risk adolescents’
academic identities. (2014). The Journal of Early Adolescence, 34(2), 178-205. doi:10.1177/0272431613480271
Davey, G. (1989). Ecological learning theory. New York: Routledge.
Ehrenreich, H., Reeves, P. M., Corley, S., & Orpinas, P. (2012). With graduation in sight: Perceptions of high- and low-aggression students of the journey to
high school completion. School Psychology Quarterly, 27(4), 198-209. doi:10.1037/spq0000006
Evans, N. J., Forney, D. S., & Guido-DiBrito, F. (1998). Student development in college: Theory, research, and practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Publishers.
Ḳeni, S. (2002). Ecological thinking: A new approach to educational change. Lanham, Md: University Press of America.
Margalef, R. (1968). Perspectives in ecological theory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Mizrahi, T., Davis, L. E., Oxford University Press, & National Association of Social Workers. (2008). Encyclopedia of social work. New York: Oxford
University Press.
Walsh, W. B., 1936, Craik, K. H., & Price, R. H. (2000). Person-environment psychology: New directions and perspectives. Mahwah, N.J: L. Erlbaum.