ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the contexts that inform and guide children's learning and development. It also explores how the bioecological model can offer a framework to incorporate many sociocultural insights on understanding development in context. The chapter interrogates the idea of 'internalisation', or the incorporation of contexts for development into the personal characteristics of the developing child. Ellis outlines key components of sociocultural theory, and a reading of this through a bioecological lens highlights several consistencies between the two approaches. These key ideas include zone of proximal development (ZPD) and scaffolding, but also 'mediated learning', 'internalisation' and 'self-regulation'. Bronfenbrenner identifies some features of an optimally structured environment, or context, for child development. Bronfenbrenner supports strong contact and mutual support between microsystems through the concept of the mesosystem. The chapter explains how personal characteristics both shape and are shaped by experiences in context. These personal characteristics are described by Bronfenbrenner and Morris as 'dispositions', 'resources' and 'demand characteristics'.
