Exploring the ‘everyday philosophies’ of generalist primary school teacher delivery of health literacy education

ABSTRACT

The enactment of the Australian Curriculum for Health and Physical Education (AC:HPE) is intended to be informed by five ‘propositions’ or Key Ideas, one of which is ‘Develop Health Literacy’. Our study occurred at four Tasmanian primary schools and was conducted by a research team consisting of public health and education academics. This team composition reflects the nature of the HealthLit4Kids program as a university and community grant-funded study intervention. We examined inter-dependent networks, of teachers and children, to investigate Health Literacy (HL) teaching. Data were collected from 30 primary teacher participants and figurational sociology was our theoretical framework. While our program increased teacher awareness about health education, participants demonstrated limited HL knowledge with their teaching largely informed by ‘everyday philosophies’. While increasing health awareness is a welcome first step with the potential to broadly influence students’ adult behaviours, the teachers’ ideas about HL were largely fantastical. This finding was supported by a latent data theme showing a restricted connection between teacher HL knowledge and the AC:HPE.

KEYWORDS:

• Health education
• health literacy
• figurational sociology
• teachers
• primary school

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Vaughan Cruickshank

Vaughan Cruickshank is a former health and physical education teacher who is currently a senior lecturer in health in physical education at the University of Tasmania.

Shane Pill

Shane Pill is an Associate Professor in Physical Education and Sport at Flinders University, South Australia. He taught HPE and science in schools for 18 years.

John Williams

John Williams is an Assistant Professor in Physical Education at the University of Canberra. He is also currently a National Board Director for the Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation (ACHPER), the national professional association for HPE teachers in Australia.

Rosie Nash

Rosie Nash is a senior lecturer in Public Health and Health Systems in the College of Health and Medicine. She co-founded HealthLit4Kids in 2016.

Casey Peter Mainsbridge

Casey Mainsbridge is currently a lecturer in health and physical education at the University of Tasmania. He is also a fitness instructor and former primary school health and physical education teacher.

Abbey MacDonald

Abbey MacDonald is a former high school art teacher who is currently a senior lecturer in arts education at the University of Tasmania.

Shandell Elmer

Shandell Elmer is a Senior Research Fellow within the Centre for Global Health and Equity at Swinburne University. She co-founded HealthLit4Kids in 2016.