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Modelling education systems: An ecological approach

This paper aims to outline concepts essential to the idea of the ecologies of education systems. The principle of self-organisation in sociology is reformulated as eco-auto-organisation. Similarly self-reference in the social construction of meaning is reconceptualised as auto-exo-reference. This transforms the notion of social construction from autonomy and conventionality with the requirement of ecological robustness. Similarly where sociology emphasises human uniqueness and autonomy, perspectives derived from evolutionary psychology offer the more modest concept of relative post-natal plasticity. The impact for the sociology of education is radical: preconscious dispositions, emotion and embodiment pay a role as important as conscious intentionality.