Session Information
08 SES 09, Societal Issues and HE Curriculum
Paper Session
Contribution
Educational research has been highlighting the importance of leadership and management practices for the improvement of the school, often referring to the key role of the school principal (Fullan, 2005, 2010; Fullan, Bertani, & Quinn, 2004). Recently there has been proliferation of research pointing to the critical role of both school leadership (Rasberry, Slade, Iohrmann, & Valois, 2015; Rowling, 2009; Samdal and Rowling, 2011) and school principals in successful implementation of whole-school approaches to health education/promotion (Dadaczynski, & Paulus, 2015; Simovska & Prøsch, 2015) and in education for sustainable development (Veronese, & Kensler, 2013). Despite of this evidence and the large amount of research on leadership in Portuguese schools (e.g., Lima, 2011), where this study was carried out, there is no research aimed to unpack the critical role of leadership and the school principal in the domain of school-based health education/promotion and education for sustainability.
These two topics are interconnected in different ways, and therefore relevant to be examined together. Some of the common points include: (a) both health and sustainability are seen as global social challenges that the school needs to engage with; (b) both are mandatory but cross-curricular issues that need to be integrated in different subjects; (c) both relate to broader educational aims, such as development of critical competences of pupils to deal with the “real-life” issues of societal relevance.
This paper aims to examine the perspectives of Portuguese principals regarding the priority given by them to health and sustainability education in the curriculum and the supporting practices related to these areas in primary and lower secondary schools (students from 6 to 17 years old). The study is a replication of the study conducted previously in Denmark (Simovska & Prøsch, 2015); the ambition, in addition to portraying the views of the school principals in Portugal, is to add a comparative perspective between the two countries in the context of school reforms in both.
Theoretical framework for the study is informed by the critical health education approach within the paradigm of health-promoting schools (e.g. Clift & Jensen, 2005; McNamara & Simovska, 2015), and the principles set up by UNESCO (2006) for education for sustainable development. What the two framework have in common is that they employ a multidimensional view on health and sustainability addressing not only individual skills and behaviours but also the environment, society, culture and economy; they are interdisciplinary and holistic; they aim at promoting critical thinking, problem solving and participatory and action-oriented education approach to both health and sustainability education (Henderson, & Tilbury, 2005; Reid, Jensen, Nikel, & Simovska, 2008; Tilbury, & Wortman, 2004; Tilbury, 2011).
The following research questions guide the study: i) what are the similarities and differences between the perspectives of Portuguese and Danish principals on the general schoolwork regarding health and sustainability education? ii) what differences exist between the perspectives of Portuguese and Danish principals regarding the formalization and prioritization of health and sustainability education at the school level?; iii) how do school principals perceive the internal collaboration (within the school) and external collaboration (the school with municipalities and other stakeholders, e.g., NGOs, the private sector, universities)?; iv) what are the opportunities and barriers arising from the ongoing Portuguese and Danish school reforms regarding health and sustainability education?; v) how do Portuguese and Danish principals perceive teachers’ professional development regarding health and sustainability education?
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Clift, S., & Bruun Jensen, B. (2005). The health promoting school: International advances in theory, evaluation and practice. Copenhagen: Danish University of Education Press. Retrieved March 4, 2014, from http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0012/111117/E90358.pdf Dadaczynski, K., & Paulus, P. (2015). Healthy principals – healthy schools? A neglected perspective to school health promotion. In V. Simovska, & P. McNamara (Eds.), Schools for health and sustainability – Theory, research and practice (pp. 253-273). Dordrecht: Springer. Fullan M, Bertani A., & Quinn J. (2004). New Lessons from districtwide reform. Educ Leadership, 61(7): 42-46. Fullan, M. (2005). Turnaround Leadership. The Educational Forum, 69, 174-181. Fullan, M. (2010). The key to the speed of quality change is embedded in the power of the principal helping to lead organization and system transformation. Principal, March/April, 10-15. Henderson, K., & Tilbury, D. (2004). Whole-school approaches to sustainability: An international review of whole-school sustainability programs. Sydney: Australian Research Institute in Education for Sustainability (ARIES). Lima, L. (2012). Diretor de escola: subordinação e poder. In A. Neto-Mendes, J.A. Costa, & A. Ventura (Org.), A emergência do diretor da escola: questões políticas e organizacionais (pp. 47-63). Aveiro: Universidade de Aveiro. McNamara, P. M., & Simovska, V. (2015). Schools for health and sustainability: Insights from the past, present and for the future. In V. Simovska & P. M. McNamara (Eds.), Schools for health and sustainability – Theory, research and practice (pp. 3–17). Dordrecht: Springer. Rasberry, C.N., Slade, S., Lohrmann, D.K., &Valois, R.F. (2015). Lessons learned from the whole child and coordinated school health approaches. J Sch Health, 85, 759-765. Reid, A., Jensen, B. B., Nikel, J., & Simovska, V. (Eds.) (2008). Participation and Learning. Perspectives on education and the environment, health and sustainability. London: Springer. Rowling, L. (2009). Strengthening “school” in school mental health promotion. Health Education, 109(4), 357-368. Samdal, O, & Rowling, L. (2011). Theoretical and empirical base for implementation components of health-promoting schools. Health Education, 111(5), 367 – 390. Simovska, V. & Prøsch, A. K. (2015). Global social issues in the curriculum: perspectives of school principals. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 1-20. Tilbury, D. (2011). Education for Sustainable Development: An Expert Review of Processes and Learning. Paris: UNESCO. Veronese, D. P., & Kensler, L. A. W. (2013). School leaders, sustainability, and green school practices: An elicitation study using the Theory of Planned Behavior. Journal of Sustainability Education, 4, n.p.. UNESCO (2006). UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development 2005-2014: International Implementation Scheme. Retrieved December 5, 2011, from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001399/139937e.pdf
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.