EDUHEALTH- Educating for equitable health outcomes, the promise of school health and physical education is a ‘Horizon 2020’ collaborative research project between Sweden, Norway and New Zealand.EDUHEALTH aims to make a meaningful contribution to the European Union (EU) and New Zealand strategies to promote physical activity and more equitable health outcomes or all citizens This symposium will report on the preliminary work and findings of the project.

As teacher educators and researchers of Health and Physical Education (HPE) we recognise that HPE is expected to play a crucial role in attaining health outcomes for all citizens but we also recognise that the way HPE is taught and conceptualised in schools does not always provide this across gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion and social class (Doll-Tepper & Scoretz, 2001; Klomsten et al., 2005; Morgan & Burke, 2008; Redelius et al., 2009; Wright, 2004). The EDUHEALTH project aims to contribute to improved individual and societal health by examining the practices of teachers and intervening in the teaching and learning processes to increase equitable health outcomes for the people of the EU, New Zealand and beyond.

Our work across three countries in the field of HPE draws us together with a common belief that health equity goals require approaches that are informed by socially-critical perspectives and embraces socially-critical pedagogies. This EU funded EDUHEALTH project enables us to enhance our understanding about, and ultimately share our knowledge of, HPE teachers’ practices in schools in all three countries. More specifically, drawing on a Critical Incident Technique (CIT) methodology, the research project enables us to identify effective critical HPE teaching practices that we aim use to develop into intervention strategies to assist HPE teachers in other contexts.

The symposium will begin with a brief overview of the project including the CIT and intervention methods we aim to implement, and the nature of the collaborative research work we have begun this year in Auckland, New Zealand. This overview will be followed by three separate presentations from  researching academics in each of the three partnership universities in the EDUHEALTH project. Each will present  findings of their own research within their own context. At the conclusion of the third presentation we will present the future direction and intended goals of the project as we move from this conference to a further month of collaborative work in Sweden and Norway. Finally, a discussant will reflect on the work presented and the nature of the project before opening the floor to the audience for the final 15 minutes of the symposium.

Doll-Tepper, G. & Scoretz, D. (2001). Proceedings, “World Summit on Physical Education” 1999. Schorndorf: Verlag, Karl Hofmann. Klomsten, A. T., Marsh, H. W. & Skaalvik, E. M. (2005). Adolescents’’ perceptions of masculine and feminine values in sport and physical education: A study of gender differences. Sex Roles A Journal of Research, May 52 (9-10), pp 625-636 Morgan, P. & Bourke, S. (2008). Non-specialist teachers' confidence to teach PE: The nature and influence of personal school experiences in PE. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 13(1), 1–29. Redelius, K, Fagrell, B., & Larsson, H. (2009). Symbolic capital in physical education and health: to be, to do or to know? That is the gendered question. Sport, Education and Society 14(2): 245–260. Wright, J. (2004). Critical inquiry and problem-solving in physical education. In J. Wright, D. Macdonald, & L. Burrows (Eds.), Critical inquiry and problem-solving in physical education (pp. 1–16). London: Routledge.