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The theory of ecological systems, also called eco-pedagogy or “theory of development in a context” or even the theory of “human ecology”, was originally formulated (and continuously revised until his death), by Urie Bronfenbrenner, and is one of the most accredited theses on the influence of the social environment on the development of the human being.
In fact, its theorist, an American psychologist, observed that children’s ways of being changed depending on the context in which they grew up, in a relationship of reciprocity. The merit of the ecological approach lies in having undermined the previous linear approach formed by the cause-effect link that had dominated pedagogical research until then.
The chrono-systemic model
Bronfenbrenner, in fact, introduces a circular view of human relationships, within which the circle of reciprocal influence between the individual and the environment develops. In addition, it defines the various systems in which a person acts during their development: the theory of human ecology thus elaborates a chrono-systemic model that takes into account both the temporal dimension and the contexts that surround the individual.
In this model, four environments (or, precisely, systems) coexist, which are contained among themselves, as concentric circles.
The four systems of eco-pedagogy
They are:
1- the microsystem (where the school also falls);
2- the mesosystem, which is the set of interrelations between two or more environmental situations in which the individual actively participates (for example, a group of peers for the adolescent), which is formed each time the subject in question becomes part of a new environmental situation.
3- that system, which is an area outside of the individual where decisions concerning him or her are made (e.g. extended family, parents’ work environment, etc.)
4- macrosystem, that is, society short (culture, religion).
The school microsystem
The first system, namely the microsystem, it is the environment in which the individual lives as a child. Therefore, it includes the family, the nursery, the home, the playground. For Bronfenbrenner, this is the place where the child begins to understand that he must act in conjunction with the external environment:
“The very young child, at first, is only aware of events taking place in his immediate environment, in what I have called a microsystem. Later, however, they become aware of the relationships between events and people in environmental situations that apparently do not involve their active participation. It is precisely this expansion of knowledge that transcends the limits of the microsystem that constitutes the determinant of development. The evolutionary process of the child, in this way, is constituted by her gradual and progressive realization that they are possible relationships between various environmental situations, from the understanding of the occurrence of events, and their nature, in contexts in which he himself has not yet been involved, such as school, or in which he will never be part, such as the work environment of his parents, a place set in a foreign country, the world created by someone’s imagination and expressed in a story, a game, a movie “(Bronfenbrenner, “Ecology of human development”).
Ecological cognitivism
Bronfenbrenner’s theory contains the roots of ecological cognitivism, which is a psychological current developed in the 1970s by James Gibson, who refused to compare the concept of “mind” with that of a computer, which simply processes data.
The rejection of this analogy, typical of other contemporary currents, is the basis of what is called Human information processing (human information processing): according to this model, inspired by cybernetics (the study of self-regulation and information storage systems, in artificial systems and in humans), our development as individuals is influenced by the environment , which can even change our personality.
Construction of meanings in the classroom
Ecological cognitivism is configured, therefore, as a kind of ecological constructivism, because it considers man as an active constructor of the meanings that surround him. Therefore, it is important to remember, for teachers, what is the purpose of creating a active environment, dynamic and full of stimuli: helping the child to create meanings for his life, for his development, for his mind.
And this, according to the cognitivist perspective, can only be done if there is a microsystemic environment, a simulation of the macrosystem.
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