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Table 1 Definitions of ecological system terms as used in this paper.

From: Pre-K teachers’ professional identity development at community-based organizations during universal Pre-K expansion in New York City

Ecological level

Definition

Examples

Microsystem

Situations in which the practitioner is physically present and has face-to-face contact with influential others

Children

Co-workers

Caregivers and families

Social worker, etc.

Mesosystem

Relationships between the Microsystems; connections between situations

Team connections

Multi-/inter-professional work such as children and caregivers, families and site leaders, and families and a social worker

Exosystem

Settings in which practitioners do not participate but in which significant decisions affecting them are made

Local/regional body authority

Parents’ workplace, such as the DOE and Early Learn in NYC

Macrosystem

‘Blueprints’ for a particular society; assumptions about ‘how things should be done’

Values, shared assumptions, broad ideological patterns of a particular culture; socio-economic and political context, such as domestic and international research organizations including OECD

Chronosystem

Developments of the ecological system over time

Socio-historical context such as racism, long-held feminized profession of ECCE, Covid-19 pandemic