Ecological approach: module five concepts

Bronfenbrenner

It is important for any teacher to understand that no child operates in isolation. A child's behavior for example can be influenced by environmental factors such as the parental home or the community at large. It can also be influenced by relationships to other human beings, such as peers, the teacher, the parents and siblings. This concomitance of environment and relationships are exemplified via the identification of Bronfenbrenner's four types of system in developmental psychology. These include the microsystem, the mesosystem, the exosystem, and the macrosystem (Yukti Ahuja).

The microsystem consists of the elements and people in the immediate vicinity of the child, such as the family at home, and the teacher and classmates in the classroom. The role of the teacher is to create a harmonious environment within which the child can go about the process of learning and development in an optimal way. This is done by means of providing interesting learning material and encouraging friendly relationships among the children.

The mesosystem refers to ways in which the various microsystems interact. The home and school environment for example should interact in a harmonious manner. The role of the teacher then is to optimize the influence of the parents and family in the education of each child.

The home and school interact, and problems should be identified and eliminated.

The exosystem refers to environments that are still further removed from the child him- or herself, but that yet influence his or her learning efforts indirectly. This could for example include the parents' workplace. A parent with a highly stressful job, for example, would struggle to give the child the attention necessary to optimize the learning process. This is also an area that should be investigated and addressed by the teacher. Such an investigation can be conducted via parent-teacher conferences and discussions.

Finally, the macrosystem refers to the wider context of the culture within which the child functions. This can refer to both the culture within which the child grew up and the culture at school. It is likely that the latter is far more diverse that the culture at home, as people from more than one culture tend to attend the same school. This could result in conflict for the young child, as well as inter-student conflict.

Teachers can go a long way towards mitigating interpersonal conflicts in early childhood education. Indeed, it is vitally important that they do so. Creating an environment of learning rather than judgment is of extreme importance in the classroom. An educator with various cultures in his or her class for example can ask students to give a presentation of their specific culture. After each presentation, there can be a question and answer session, during which children are allowed to learn about the various cultures in the classroom.

It should also be recognized that the four basic systems of interaction also interact with each other and that they can be used in concomitance to create for each child a learning environment that is suitable for the specific child. In this, the group work dynamic is important, where the microsystem is complimented not only by the macrosystem, but also by the mesosystem and the exosystem. In group work, the mesosystem refers to the interaction of a wide variety of students in one classroom, each with his or her own microsystem and way of believing and doing things. The exosystem could refer to the other groups in the classroom, each with its influences on the creative work of the children.