ABSTRACT
The subject of this chapter is the ecosystemic approach to emotional and behavioural problems in schools. This is a relatively new approach, originating from the work of American scholars and practitioners (e.g. de Shazer, 1982; Molnar and Lindquist, 1989), and developed in the form described here by two of the present authors (Upton and Cooper, 1990; Cooper and Upton, 1990a, 1990b, 1991a, 1991b, 1992). In fact the approach is new enough to provoke Josh Schwieso (1992, p. 91) to ask:
[…] what would lead teachers to prefer what is, as the authors [Cooper and Upton, 1992] admit, a relatively untried enterprise [i.e. the ecosystemic approach] to one that has amply proved its worth [i.e. the behavioural approach]?
