Learn more:

• After being taught uncritically about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in multiple classes, I learned — nearly a decade later — that his framework drew (and not particularly accurately) from Blackfoot traditions. Here’s an article and here’s a video.
• Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang has some interesting research on the role of emotions and social connections in learning.
• The importance of stable and supportive relationships in human resilience and development is pretty clear. Dr. Ann Masten’s book and Coursera offering on youth responses to crisis and trauma are interesting. Bethany Saltman’s “Strange Situation” is also interesting, and here’s an interview she did exploring its themes with Andrew Solomon, whose work is also worth checking out.
• As you encounter the “psycho social-environmental” and “bio socio emotional environmental” “social ecological” and other systems models of understanding human needs and behavior that are continually being adapted for education, social work, disability studies, and public health publications, when they reference Bronfenbrenner, here’s what they mean.
• “What Can A Body Do” touches briefly on the ways schools are designed in ways that actively harm folks with disabilities, both in the built environments and in the constant assertion that one’s performance on intelligence assessments indicates worth or potential. The case studies of environments that were designed centering disabled folks made me think about the materials and design elements of our space in a way I hadn’t before.