Editorial: An ecological context of childhood

Abstract

There are some pieces of scholarly work that one comes across through one's academic and clinical career that are persuasive, clear and keep on having meaning. Such a piece of work is Brofenbrenner's Ecological Model of Childhood. The effect of being more senior as an academic and then an academic in Australia, is that I have realised that such work seems to have gone out of fashion and I find myself needing to explain it to colleagues, when before it was part of the common parlance. Scholars of various kinds keep citing him and being influenced by him, but since arriving here in Australia, my mentioning his name seems to meet the same look of lack of comprehension as when I mention England winning the Ashes. It might be a local thing, but younger colleagues in the UK gave me that similar look as well. Or perhaps they think I've finally gone GaGa or have a throat disease.