New Possibilities: Critiquing and Recontextualizing Bronfenbrenner's Model of Human Development in the Anthropocene

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 55
  In Roundtable Session: New Theories and Possibilities for Environmental Education Research

Abstract

In this paper we recognise the legacy of Bronfenbrenner’s model of human development (1979), but argue that a critical examination of its contextual relevance in the Anthropocene (Steffen, Crutzen & McNeill, 2007) is long overdue. We seek new possibilities for re-contextualising Bronfenbrenner’s theoretical model enmeshed with the dimensions of sustainability (UNESCO, 2010) that were not a consideration forty years ago, and inclusive of the Earth’s physical environment and non-human co-habitants. Global contexts and times have changed dramatically. Hence, it is imperative that we revisit embedded theoretical models of human development such as Bronfenbrenner’s and critique their contemporary relevance in the public interest of current and future generations.

Authors

• Julie Margaret Davis, Queensland University of Technology

• Sue Elliott, University of New England