A case‐study of a curriculum development process in nutrition education using empowerment as organizational policy

While many nutrition education curricula have been developed, there is a dearth of published description of the process of development and the insights gained that might be useful to others. The purpose of this study was to provide such a description. The study used participant‐observation as a qualitative analytical method; empowerment as an organizational policy, and a UNESCO manual (Contento and Morin, 1988) as a guide to develop a nutrition education curriculum for a low‐income area of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The curriculum development team of ten members was representative of various stakeholders of the school community. Observation of the process yielded several important insights: Empowerment used as an organizational policy, with the involvement of the entire community during the planning process, can enhance people's ability to work together and develop a realistic sense of success, ownership and high commitment to curriculum implementation; professionals and lay people can design a curriculum together if a planning framework is provided to enhance mutual competence; all members of the team, regardless of educational level or background, should be involved in designing and pilot‐testing instruments, analyzing needs assessment data and designing lesson plans; and effective leadership is important, based on ability to facilitate group process, foster open communication, value and integrate the differing views and skills of team members and bring closure to tasks.

Key words:

• Nutrition education
• empowerment
• curriculum development
• Brazil

Notes

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