Book chapter
Challenging taken-for-granted ideas in early childhood education: a critique of Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory in the age of post-humanism
Research handbook on childhoodnature: assemblages of childhood and nature research. Volume 2, pp.1119-1154
Springer international handbooks of education, Springer International Publishing AG
2020
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Abstract
A significant theorist in the early childhood education field is Urie Bronfenbrenner who, in 1979, proposed his “ecological systems theory,” sometimes referred to as the “ecological framework for human development.” This theory offers a multidimensional systems model for understanding the influence of family through to economic and political structures; thus, it presents a way of understanding the human life course from early childhood through to adulthood. In this theory, the ecological framework enables the mapping of information about individuals and their contexts over time in order to understand their diverse systemic interconnections. A critique of this model, however, from a childhoodnature stance, is that it ignores consideration of human-nature interconnections. Thus, it is a deeply anthropocentric model of human development that is at odds with emergent posthumanist thinking that seeks to de-center the human condition. In this Chapter, we argue that the pervasiveness of this human-centered systems approach works against sustainability, in that it reinforces the sociocultural, political, and economic dimensions of being human at the expense of environmental interconnections. Drawing on systems theory, posthumanist theory, new materialism, a critical lens to pedagogy, and new sociology of childhood, we propose alternative ways of approaching Bronfenbrenner’s work that, both, facilitates human connections and strengthens children and nature connections that have implications for early childhood education philosophy and pedagogy.
Details
- Title
- Challenging taken-for-granted ideas in early childhood education: a critique of Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory in the age of post-humanism
- Creators
- Sue ElliottJulie M Davis - Southern Cross University
- Contributors
- Amy Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles (Editor of compilation) - Southern Cross University, School of EducationKaren Malone (Editor of compilation) - Southern Cross University, School of EducationElizabeth Barratt-Hacking (Editor of compilation)
- Publication Details
- Research handbook on childhoodnature: assemblages of childhood and nature research. Volume 2, pp.1119-1154
- Series
- Springer international handbooks of education
- Publisher
- Springer International Publishing AG; Cham, Switzerland
- Identifiers
- 2940; 991012821947302368
- Copyright
- © 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Education; School of Education
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Book chapter