Session Information
08 SES 13, Leading Health Education: A Workshop on Paradigm Shifts in Health Literacy for Children and Young People
Research Workshop
Contribution
The research questions to be addressed by this workshop are analytical – ‘What paradigmatic shifts are required in public debates around health literacy, and how can these be informed by relevant educational research?’ – as well as topical, namely ‘How can we deconstruct public discourse around health literacy in order to identify the underpinnings of conservative paradigms and to find entry points for socially aware research?’
The objectives of the workshop are to pursue and address these research questions. The workshop will combine presentations followed by discussion with small group exercises that allow identification of key issues and the stimulation of further analysis. It is also hoped that the workshop will encourage both early stage researchers and more experienced scholars to address health education in general and paradigm shifts in health literacy in particular, in order to strengthen existing networks as well as to extend them.
Theoretical framework. Health issues today hold a particular imperative for researchers to exercise professional responsibility in the public interest, whilst retaining their scholarly autonomy from the various vested interests that are active within debates on health. The conference theme ‘Leading Education’ is therefore especially relevant to discussions around research on health education, primary prevention and health promotion.
This workshop will engage participants in presentations and exercises that are engendered by paradigm shifts within the field of health literacy, shifts that again resonate with the call for proposals for this conference with its emphasis on educational research as a common good and on ‘new compass readings.’ We will argue that health literacy is a social construct (Pleasant 2014), and represents contested terrain between -- for example -- narrower medical models versus more socially oriented approaches.
When discussions focus on health literacy for children and young people – also involving fraught public debates – there is an even greater need for leadership by education researchers who emphasize richer theoretical approaches to literacy than simply reading information on pamphlets supplied along with medicine or “healthy” behaviours and lifestyles. An alternative approach would centre health literacy on meaning making processes related to multiple forms of language rather than on the use and processing of health information (Pinheiro and Bauer 2015).
In health literacy debates, priority is given to perspectives on childhood as merely an early development stage in the life course while theories that recognize children as social agents are usually neglected (Bröder et al 2015;Okan et al. 2016; Pinheiro and Bauer 2015). Health literacy in childhood and youth is further constructed in terms of ranked and hierarchical assessments of knowledge, skills and behaviour that are perceived as highly individualized, rather than drawing on theory to analyse the social construction of health and health literacy (Okan et a.l 2015). A paradigm shift would recognize health literacy as reflective practice in everyday life, including by children and young people, drawing on Donald Schön’s classic analysis, as applied to relationships in childhood by George (2013). Practical dimensions must be interwoven with relevant concepts and theories, if indeed socially aware research is to lead health education, and here we can draw on theoretically informed advocacy for children’s and young people’s rights (Sijthoff 2014).
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Bröder, J., Okan, O., Bruland, D., Lopes, E., Bauer, U., Pinheiro, P., 2015, Health Literacy in Childhood and Adolescence (HLCA): Exploring and Developing Theories, Concepts, and Models on Health Literacy in Childhood and Adolescence (HLCA-TeCoMo). Book of Abstracts; 3rd European Health Literacy Conference, Brussels, Belgium, 23-24. George, S., 2013, Children as Self-Educators, Parents as Coaches: Disciplined Freedom and Democratic Spaces, Working Paper Series 2012-2013, University of Delhi, Delhi. Okan, O., Bröder, J., Pinheiro, P. Bauer, U., 2016, Health Literacy im Kindes- und Jugendalter - Eine explorierende Perspektive. In: Schaeffer, D., Pelikan, J., Kickbusch, I., (eds): Health Literacy: Forschungsstand und Perspektiven. Bern: Huber. (in press) [German] Okan, O., Lopes, E., Bröder, J., Bruland, D., Bauer, U., Pinheiro, P., 2015, Health Literacy in Childhood and Adolescence (HLCA): “Methods of Measuring Health Literacy of Children (MoMChild)”. Book of Abstracts; 3rd European Health Literacy Conference, Brussels, Belgium, 23-24. Pinheiro, P., Bauer, U. 2015 October, Current Conceptualizations of Health Literacy in Childhood – Some Modest Reflections; Paper presented in: Recognizing Children and Young People as Active Citizens within Health Literacy: Theory and Practice across Europe; Workshop conducted at the 3rd European Health Literacy Conference, Brussels, Belgium. Pleasant, A., 2014, Advancing Health Literacy Measurement: A Pathway to Better Health and Health System Performance. J Health Commun, 19(12), 1481–1496. Sijthoff, E., 2014, Exercising Rights and ‘Active’ Citizenship: Children, Physical Activity and Learning – in the Classroom and Beyond. In: Thomas, M., (ed): A Child’s World: Contemporary Issues in Education, Abersytwyth University, Aberystwyth, 39-57.
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