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GLOSSARY INQUIRY: ECOLOGICAL
Ecological refers to the web of relationships in which an organism is embedded.
It points to the nested nature of all living organisms in increasingly large complex systems, in which the links between parts of the system are necessary for the maintenance of the system as a whole. Ecology can be distinguished from simplistic understandings of environment, which imply a separation between human beings (or other organisms) and the ecology in which they are embedded.
An ecological insight for education is that the knower, be it an individual human being or another complex system, cannot be separated from the known. Teachers, students and their environments co-constitute each other and influence one another’s learning, knowledge and identity.
See related terms: Nestedness, Complex System, Parts, Learning, Knowledge, Identity, Education, Classroom, Conditions for Emergence.
