Developing holistic policy and practice using ecological models Flashcards
The ecological model can be applied to many health, educational or social issues
It recognises that individual behaviours are often learned or sanctioned through the interrelationships that children and young people have across the environments in which they are embedded. Issues concerning drugs, crime, and ‘anti-social’ and discriminatory behaviours can be analysed in a similar way and possible solutions developed.
Dresler-Hawke and Whitehead (2009) used a social ecological perspective to find out about the various components behind school bullying.
They then used this to construct a holistic intervention strategy attempting to address bullying
In addition to using the social ecological perspective to understand the complexities of school bullying, Dresler-Hawke and Whitehead (2009) were also interested in developing health promotion strategies that could address the root causes. They outline a model called the ‘Behavioural Ecological Model (BEM)’ which allows for a multi-level response addressing many of the potential causes of bullying.
The model proposed by Dresler-Hawke and Whitehead is useful for analysing the possible causes of a problem, in this case bullying. However, it can also be used to structure appropriate responses to address identified problems.
These are the key points in Learning Guide 3
- An ecological perspective is useful for making sense of the complexities that surround working with children, young people and families. It may be useful for deep-seated problems such as inequalities and complex problems such as bullying.
- Ecological models can support how we think about practice and how we organise practice – such as assessment.
- An ecological perspective may be detected in many assessment frameworks; however, there are limitations to this perspective that should be kept in mind.
- Ecological models are not static; they need to take into consideration changes to people, communities and society across time.
