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Analyzing And Applying Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Theory

Decent Essays

This semester I participated in a service learning partnership with two other students. Through the semester I spent a little over ten hours with each of my partners. Most of the activities we participated in were activities in which we were able to get to know one other on more of a personal level. The thing that made this partnership interesting was the fact we were all from different parts of the world. Which means the way we had grown up was very different for each of us. I grew up with what I would consider the ‘typical American’ childhood. I was raised in Alaska by a mom a dad and have two younger siblings. I attended public school, a Christian church and speak English as my native language. My first partner Duraid grew up with a much …show more content…

Which reminds me about a couple things that I had learned during the semester in class. For example, Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory. His theory claims that children are direct products and are even producers of each interdependent environment, in which exposed. Everything that we are exposed to from our microsystems to our macrosystems, it all helps to create the type of environment that in turn helps us to produce our many schemas. Our schemas are how we explain the information that we have. In order to process new information and how we react to new situations are all based upon each of our many schemata. One example was when Duraid took me to lunch at one of his favorite places to eat. The restaurant specialized in Middle Eastern cuisine, and it was all completely new to me. Duraid described for me each of the different foods and which his favorites are. Everything about this place was completely new to me, the food was different, the environment of the restaurant was different, even the way that the food is supposed to be eaten was different. I was raised to eat using utensils as opposed to using my hands, which is considered rude. However with Middle Eastern cultures, using your hands instead of your fork, spoon or knife is considered the norm. This activity really caused me to adjust my schema in the way that …show more content…

For example Duraid was very respectful and courteous. When he and I were together he held doors open for me, he never interrupted while I was speaking, and a least offered to pick up the bill after we finished lunch. While he and I were together he didn’t make me feel as though the only reason we were together was for an assignment but rather, just spending time together as friends. Duriad’s behavior was different from Sita’s behavior in a couple of ways. Although she was very friendly, she sometimes made me feel as though she wanted to be somewhere else, rather than spending time on our

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