In 2016, Information Age Publishing (IAP) launched a seminal and timely series on Current Issues in Out-of-School Time (OST). The Series promotes and disseminates original theoretical and empirical research, promising practices and policy perspectives from practitioners to further grow the OST field.

It Takes an Ecosystem, Understanding the People, Places, and Possibilities of Learning and Development Across Settings is the sixth book of the series, Current Issues in Out-of-School Time. The book explores the benefits of developing connections across the systems in which adults engage with young people. This book guides the reader through research and examples of initiatives that demonstrate the positive and negative ways that interactions with all adults in the lives of young people shape their learning and development. This book provides evidence as to why this shift in thinking about the learning and development landscape to an ecosystem perspective envisions a more connected and equitable world. SCRI spoke with the book’s editors, Thomas Akiva and Kimberly H. Robinson.