|
For Whose Benefit? The Politics of Developing A Health Education
Curriculum
Theoretical considerations
As principal writers, Ian Culpan and myself believe a health and
physical education curriculum should be designed to improve the
social and learning environments of our schools, and to enhance
the health prospects of all students in a changing and challenging
twenty-first century. We believe such a curriculum needs to address
the antecedents of health issues and problems which have their locations
in socio-cultural, historic or economic factors as opposed to individualised
actions, contexts or situations. We also believe that such a curriculum
needs to incorporate the three key concepts of total wellbeing (hauora);
health promotion; and the socio-ecological perspective discussed
previously in this paper and which was embodied in the PAG's policy
specifications (Ministry of Education, 1995).
These concepts fit well with recent trends to construct curricula
informed by the tenets of post-modern curriculum theory (Doll, 1989).
Doll argues that such concepts and pedagogy are designed to address
an ever changing environment, rather than focus on the acquisition
of a fixed body of knowledge (as in the past) which is regarded
as unchanging, static and unresponsive to change. As Doll maintains,
"curriculum becomes a process of development rather than a body
of knowledge to be covered or learned" (1989, p. 250). Thus a post-modern
curriculum recognises the complexity of interelationships and the
interdependency between individuals and their environments; social,
political, economic and physical. Thus curriculum should not be
regarded as, "a linear trajectory nor a course with hurdles to be
run, but ... a multi-faceted matrix to be explored" (Ibid.,
p. 251).
A post-modern health education curriculum would thus enable a school
community to participate in an ever-changing society for the improved
health and welfare of all its members, not just its children. Such
a curriculum would need to adopt a critical analytical approach.
It would be emancipatory, in that it would engage us as learners
and teachers in a pedagogy through which we come to understand the
social processes and relationships that dominate our practices and
structures (e.g. the way we teach and learn health education). Kemmis
and McTaggart argue that such an approach problematises the nature
of society. Indeed it questions:
... what is, in the light of what could be. It is to recognise
that the classrooms, schools and society we have today are the
result of a process of social and historical formation, and that
to achieve a different form of classroom, school or society, we
must embark on a process of social and historical reformation
or transformation – a struggle for reform (Kemmis and McTaggart,
1988, p. 30).
A curriculum based on this model aims to enable learners to participate
in a broad range of learning experiences that can empower them to
develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to enhance personal
identity and health status. It encourages them to critically interpret
their own and others' health experiences; to think about these in
real terms that analyse the social structures they are enmeshed
in; and, to consider the contradictions and tensions underlying
all health issues in our society. It involves the promotion of critical
analysis and reflective thinking which should ultimately lead to
the development of more informed decision making processes. It was
encouraging to the writers to note that this critical approach was
endorsed in the PAG's Policy Specifications
for the Health and Physical Education National Curriculum Statement.
Accordingly these state that:
This essential learning area encompasses integrated learning
processes which inform, extend and critique practices that promote
the health, development and wellbeing of individuals and groups
who live in a changing world (Ministry of Education, 1995, p.
1).
A post-modern health education curriculum thus aims to produce
young adults who are able to participate responsibly, reflectively
and actively in their communities in order to create healthy environments.
Of course the well known example of such an approach is in the Freirian
(Freire, 1973) concept of empowerment, involving social action by
children and students around issues of community and societal concern.
This approach has been actively embraced in some Australian state
curriculum documents. For example, the Victorian Ministry of Education's
Personal Development Frameworks states that:
Health education must foster the capacity for young people to
develop a socially critical perspective about health issues ...
Students should also be given the opportunity to evaluate social
conditions which might lead to health problems in our community.
They may develop strategies to deal with these from a personal
perspective, and where practicable, such studies should lead to
action projects (1989, p. 79).
This committment to action was also made clear in the PAG's policy
specifications which state:
The aims of the Health and Physical Education curriculum are
to enable students to participate in creating healthy communities
and environments by taking responsible and critical action (Ministry
of Education, 1995, p. 2).
Thus by implication, the new curriculum would need to address
the impact of the whole school environment, family, the wider community,
media, commercial interests and other societal influences on individual
health status. As Tones (1990) argues, the raising of this kind
of critical consciousness will create challenges to the prevailing
socio-economic system which has exacerbated personal and structural
inequalities in our society (Kelsey, 1995; Kelsey and O'Brien, 1995;
Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 1996), and to the consequent ill health
associated with these (Hewlett, 1993; UNICEF, 1994).
The four aims of the health and physical education curriculum determined
by the PAG led directly to an inter-related four strand structure
enabling the theoretical assumptions discussed above to be incorporated
into the learning outcomes which were subsequently developed. The
four aims set out in the PAG's Policy Specifications are
to enable students to:
- promote understanding, skills and attitudes for personal health
and physical development;
- develop motor skills and kinaesthetic awareness through movement,
acquire knowledge and understanding about movement and develop
positive attitudes to physical education and physical activity;
- develop understanding, skills and attitudes to enhance interactions
and relationships with others;
- participate in creating healthy communities and environments
by taking responsible and critical action (Ministry of Education,
1995, p. 2).
|
