{"id":725,"date":"2013-08-27T00:48:42","date_gmt":"2013-08-27T00:48:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/content.scienceofecd.com\/secd-intro\/?page_id=725"},"modified":"2025-09-24T16:00:29","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T16:00:29","slug":"ec-1-1-contexts","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/content.scienceofecd.com\/secd-intro\/ec-1-1-contexts\/","title":{"rendered":"EC 1.1 Contexts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

People develop in the context of particular times and places. Children are nurtured in many different kinds of families, homes and communities.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n

\n

Consider…<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jacob<\/h4>\n
\"\"<\/figure>Four-year-old Jacob lives on a farm near Milo, a small town in southeastern Alberta. His dad is a wheat farmer and his Mom is a nurse who works shifts in a hospital…<\/span>\n
 <\/div>\n

Ziba<\/h4>\n
\"\"<\/figure>

Four-year-old Ziba lives in a suburb of Moncton, New Brunswick. She lives with her mother and older brother, Ben, in a three bedroom house with a backyard…<\/p>\n

 <\/div>\n

Michelle<\/h4>\n
\"\"<\/figure>

Four-year-old Michelle lives in assisted social housing in downtown Montreal with her twin sisters, two-year-old Alisha and Jean-Marie. Her mother is a student… <\/p>\n

 <\/div>Read more<\/a> <\/strong>\n<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n
\n\n\n

Growing up in Canada, what do these children have in common?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are some differences in their daily experience and family contexts? How do you think these differences might affect them?<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

The surrounding terrain and available physical resources also contribute to the ease or difficulty of everyday life. In many countries there is tremendous geographical variation. In Canada, for example, think about the differences in geography between southern British Columbia and Nunavut or the prairies and south coast of Nova Scotia. And there are many other factors in the environments that surround children that influence their development and lives. For example, think about the different cultural contexts in each family and community. Think about what supports and services are available for families. What about economic opportunities for families and communities? What does it mean for a child’s daily life?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bioecological systems theory<\/h3>\n\n\n
\n
\"Ecological<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

One of the most influential theories of human development, Dr. Urie Bronfenbrenner\u2019s Ecological Systems Theory (1979), emphasizes how the environment influences a child\u2019s development and how the developing child influences his or her environment. Bronfenbrenner considered human development as occurring within a complex system of relationships that occur within and between various “layers” of environments. He proposed a framework for organizing sets of environmental systems. He conceived that the child\u2019s world is organized \u201cas a set of nested structures, each inside the next, like a set of Russian dolls\u201d (1979, p. 22). These systems range from the most immediate setting, such as family, to more remote contexts that do not directly involve the child, such as society\u2019s legal system or beliefs. Bronfenbrenner recognized the influence of a child\u2019s own biological system and incorporated that into his theory, renaming it the Bioecological Systems Theory.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\n\n

Bronfenbrenner labeled the environmental systems of his theory as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n