Session Information
08 SES 09, Societal Issues and HE Curriculum
Paper Session
Contribution
In a time that brings constant reminders that we are citizens in a shared world, the term ‘global’ is pertinent in contemporary society and, thus, to education. With influx of refugees, threats of global warming and financial crises, but also with our daily use of communication systems, that connect us across the globe within seconds, educationalists have a role in determining ways to educate people as global citizens. Building understandings about being global and health education is also increasing in need. For example, Marmot and colleagues (Wilkinson and Marmot 2003) through their work on social determinants, also named the causesof ill health and have been able todemonstrate how conditions for health are unequally distributed within and between countries (Marmot 2005). This calls for attention to issues of global health (Labonté and Schrecker 2007). But apart from identifying the need for creating ‘public awareness about these determinants’ in order to fight inequalities in health’ (Marmot et al. 2008), the overwhelming focus has been placed on health policy.
We, however, believe that education has a strong role to play in reducing global inequalities in health. Inspired by Dewey’s (1939) conceptualisation of the cosmopolitan person, we argue that educating young people to understand and act upon global social determinants of health, means building reflexivity on their own cultural roots, traditions and practices and simultaneously open their minds towards the world (Hansen 2009). Thus, education on global health must facilitate room for developing reflexivity about local as well as global health traditions and practices. In doing so it facilitates students being open to inspiration for what might lead to new and possibly better ways of living, and thus strengthen their health agency in a globalized world. Much in line with Dewey, Jensen coins the term Democratic Health Education (Jensen 1997), and argues that becoming educated about health entails ‘active involvement of students in constructing their own knowledge and action competences’ (Jensen 1997;419). Further it is something that cannot be obtained solely by giving information to students on how to behave healthily. By insisting on genuine participation by students, Jensen and Simovska (2009) have defined an approach to health education that must be open to multiple interpretations of health; that promote students’ insights into their own and others’ practices and conditions for health; and develop abilities to visualize new ways to be agents in health.
Inspired by the concepts of the cosmopolitan person and democratic health education, this presentation discusses the primary school classroom as a setting for educating students to become health agents with a cosmopolitan outlook. The discussion is based on findings from the evaluation of the educational program MOVE|EAT|LEARN (MEL). MEL is a primary school based educational programme developed by teachers in Denmark and Nairobi. The programme facilitates cultural meetings, primarily Skype-based, between students from Kenya and Denmark, with the aim to promote reflections on differences and similarities in the everyday living conditions across cultures and nations, and their impact on health practices. Based on the findings this presentation will discuss the merits of this kind of education as a way to promote students health agency and understandings of global health conditions, and whether that, in a long term perspective, can support equity in health.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Dewey, J. (1938). Education and experience. New York: Simon and Schuster Hansen, D. T. (2009). Dewey and cosmopolitanism. Education and culture, 25(2), 126-140. Jensen, B. B. (1997). A case of two paradigms within health education. Health education research, 12(4), 419-428. Jensen, B.B. (2000). Health knowledge and health education in the democratic health-promoting school. Health education, 100(4), 146-154. Larsen N, Bruselius-Jensen M, Danielsen D, et al. (2014) ICT-based, cross-cultural communication: A methodological perspective. International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology 10: 107. Labonté R and Schrecker T. (2007) Globalization and social determinants of health: Introduction and methodological background (part 1 of 3). Global Health 3: 1-10. Marmot M. (2005) Social determinants of health inequalities. The Lancet 365: 1099-1104. Marmot, M., Friel, S., Bell, R., Houweling, T. A., Taylor, S., & Commission on Social Determinants of Health. (2008). Closing the gap in a generation: health equity through action on the social determinants of health. The Lancet, 372(9650), 1661-1669. Simovska, V., & Bruun Jensen, B. (2009). Conceptualizing Participation: the health of children and young people. WHO, Regional Office for Europe. Wilkinson RG and Marmot MG. (2003) Social determinants of health: the solid facts: World Health Organization.
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