Sustainable Use of Ecological Concepts in Educational Science

Svenkerud, Sigrun Wessel; Madsen, Janne; Ballangrud, Brit Bolken; Strande, Anne-Lise; Stenshorne, Elisabeth

doi:10.2478/dcse-2020-0013

Abstract

In this article, the authors discuss the use of ecological concepts (ecology, boundary, niche) in educational research to understand if and how these concepts from one field of science (ecology) can bring a new understanding to another field of science (education). We have conducted a systematic search in the ERIC database to identify articles where key concepts from ecology, such as ecosystem, boundaries and niche, are used in educational research. An algorithm inspired by Rodger’s (2000) contextual model of concept analysis was used to examine how the concepts contribute to explore, explain or understand an educational system or an educational process. We find that the use of ecology-oriented concepts is related to a circular rather than a linear causality between actors and environment and between thoughts and actions. Thus, an ecological educational approach is characterised by wholeness, and emphasizes context as well as the complex interconnected mechanisms in educational processes.

References

Akkerman, S. F., & Bakker, A. (2011). Boundary crossing and boundary objects. Review of Educational Research, 81(2), 132–169.10.3102/0034654311404435
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Akkerman, S., & Bruining, T. (2016). Multilevel boundary crossing in a professional development school partnership. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 25(2), 240–284.10.1080/10508406.2016.1147448
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Bateson, G. (1972). Steps to an ecology of mind: Collected essays in anthropology, psychiatry, evolution, and epistemology. London: Intertext Books.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Blin, J. F. (1997). Représentations, pratiques et identités professionnelles. [Representations, practices and professional identities]. Paris: L’Harmathan.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1996). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Butler, J. I., Storey, B., & Robson, C. (2014). Emergent learning focused teachers and their ecological complexity worldview. Sport, Education & Society, 19(4), 451–471. doi: 10.1080/13573322.2012.68043510.1080/13573322.2012.680435
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Cadenasso, M. L., Pickett, S. T. A., Weathers, K. C., & Jones, C. G. (2003). A framework for a theory of ecological boundaries. BioScience, 53(8), 750–758.10.1641/0006-3568(2003)053[0750:AFFATO]2.0.CO;2
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Campbell, N. A., Reece, J. B., Urry, L. A., Cain, M. L., Wasserman, S. A., Minorsky, P. V., & Jackson, R. B. (2008). Biology (8^th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Pearson Benjamin Cummings.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Cole, M. (1996). Cultural psychology: A once and future discipline. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Cooper, L., Ralphs, A., & Harris, J. (2017). Recognition of prior learning: The tensions between its inclusive intentions and constraints on its implementation. Studies in Continuing Education, 39(2), 197–213. doi: 10.1080/0158037X.2016.127389310.1080/0158037X.2016.1273893
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Engeström,Y., Engeström,R., & Kärkkäinen, M. (1995). Polycontextuality and boundary crossing in expert cognition: Learning and problem solving in complex work activities. Learning and Instruction, 5(4), 319–336.10.1016/0959-4752(95)00021-6
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Engeström, Y., Engeström, R., & Vähäaho, T. (1999). When the center does not hold: The importance of knotworking. In Chaiklin, S., Hedegaard, M., & Jensen, U. J. (Eds.), Activity theory and social practice (pp. 345–374). Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Eskici, M. (2019). Sustainable learning levels of high school students. Discourse and Communication for Sustainable Education, 10(1), 63. doi: org/10.2478/dcse-2019-000610.2478/dcse-2019-0006
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Fitzgerald, S. R., Gardner, A. C., Amey, M. J., & Farrell-Cole, P. L. (2018). Crossing disciplinary, institutional and role boundaries in an interdisciplinary consortium. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 40(4), 359–374. doi: 10.1080/1360080X.2018.148251410.1080/1360080X.2018.1482514
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Gallimore, R., Weisner, T. S., Kaufman, S. Z., & Bernheimer, L. P. (1989). The social construction of ecocultural niches: Family accommodation of developmentally delayed children. American Journal on Mental Retardation, 94(3), 216–230.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Gibson, J. J. (2015). The ecological approach to visual perception (Classic ed.). New York: Psychology Press Classic Editions.10.4324/9781315740218
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Halvorsen, K. V. (2014). Partnerskap i l¿ rerutdanning, sett fra et økologisk perspektiv [Partnership in teacher education, understood from an ecological perspective] (Doctoral dissertation, Bergens Universitet). http://bora.uib.no/handle/1956/8928
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Hutchins, E. (2010). Cognitive ecology. Topics in Cognitive Science, 2, 705–715. doi: 10.1111/j.1756-8765.2010.0108910.1111/j.1756-8765.2010.01089.x
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Kemmis, S., & Heikkinen, H. (2012). Future perspectives: Peer group mentoring and international practices for teacher development. In Heikkinen, H. J., & Tynjälä, P. (Eds.), Peer-group mentoring for teacher development (pp. 144–170). London: Routledge.10.4324/9780203115923
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Kersh, N. (2015). Rethinking the learning space at work and beyond: The achievement of agency across the boundaries of work-related spaces and environments. (Report). International Review of Education, 61(6), 835–851. doi: 10.1007/s11159-015-9529-210.1007/s11159-015-9529-2
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Köpsén, S., & Andersson, P. (2015). Reformation of VET and demands on teachers’ subject knowledge – Swedish vocational teachers’ recurrent participation in a national CPD initiative. Journal of Education and Work, 1–15. doi: 10.1080/13639080. 2015.1119259.10.1080/13639080.2015.1119259
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Lewicki, J. (1998). Cooperative ecology & place: Development of a pedagogy of place curriculum. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED573929.pdf
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Lopes, A., Boyd, P., Andrew, N., & Pereira, F. (2014). The research-teaching nexus in nurse and teacher education: Contributions of an ecological approach to academic identities in professional fields. Higher Education, 68(2), 167–183. doi: 10.1007/s10734-013-9700-210.1007/s10734-013-9700-2
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Lykke, G.-U. (2019). Education for sustainability: Developing ecocritical literature circles in the student teacher classroom. Discourse and Communication for Sustainable Education, 10(1), 5–19. doi: org/10.2478/dcse-2019-000210.2478/dcse-2019-0002
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Mahon, K., Heikkinen, H. L. T., & Huttunen, R. (2018). Critical educational praxis in university ecosystems: Enablers and constraints. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 27(3), 463–480. doi: 10.1080/14681366.2018.152266310.1080/14681366.2018.1522663
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Mooney S., G., & Lang, M. (2018). Deliberative teacher education beyond boundaries: Discursive practices for eliciting gender awareness. Teachers and Teaching, 24(2), 135–150. doi: 10.1080/13540602.2017.137042010.1080/13540602.2017.1370420
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Nore, H. (2015). Re-contextualizing vocational didactics in Norwegian vocational education and training. International Journal for Research in Vocational Education and Training, 2(3), 182–194. doi: 10.13152/IJRVET.2.3.410.13152/IJRVET.2.3.4
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Rice, M. L., & O’Brien, M. (1990). Transitions: Times of change and accommodation. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 9(4), 1–14.10.1177/027112149000900402
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Rienties, B., & Héliot, Y. (2018). Enhancing (in)formal learning ties in interdisciplinary management courses: A quasi-experimental social network study. Studies in Higher Education, 43(3), 437–451. doi: 10.1080/03075079.2016.117498610.1080/03075079.2016.1174986
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Rodgers, B. L. (2000). Concept analysis: An evolutionary view. In Rodgers, B. L., & Knafl, K. A. (2^nd ed.), Concept development in nursing: Foundations, techniques, and applications (pp. 77–102). Philadelphia: Saunders.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Snoek, M., Enthoven, V., Kessels, J., & Volman, M. (2017). Increasing the impact of a master’s programme on teacher leadership and school development by means of boundary crossing. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 20(1), 26–56. doi: 10.1080/13603124.2015.102585510.1080/13603124.2015.1025855
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Star, S. L., & Griesemer, J. R. (1989). Institutional ecology, translations and boundary objects: Amateurs and professionals in Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907–39. Social Studies of Science, 19(3), 387–420.10.1177/030631289019003001
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Strayer, D., Power, M., Fagan, W., Pickett, S. T. A., & Belnap, J. (2009). A classification of ecological boundaries. BioScience, 53, 723–729. doi: 10.1641/0006-356810.1641/0006-3568(2003)053[0723:ACOEB]2.0.CO;2
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Thompson, P. J. (Ed.) (1997). Environmental education for the 21^st century: International and interdisciplinary perspectives. New York: Peter Lang Publishing Inc.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Wang, X., & Wong, J. L. N. (2017). How do primary school teachers develop knowledge by crossing boundaries in the school-university partnership? A case study in China. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 45(5), 487–504. doi: 10.1080/1359866X.2016.126139210.1080/1359866X.2016.1261392
Search in Google Scholar Back to article

Sustainable Use of Ecological Concepts in Educational Science

Abstract

Paradigm

My account