Main Content
Session Information
08 SES 14, Policy- and curriculumperspectives in health and sexuality education
Paper Session
Contribution
Taking a cue from Bernstein (1971; 1990) on the message systems of schooling that frame and function in an increasingly globalised and politicised education policy context (Sellar & Lingard, 2014), this paper asks what are the opportunities within the Welsh, English and Australian national curricula to identify the spaces to not only support children’s learning in health education but also for teaching about health inequalities? This includes discussion of symbolic statements, captured not only in broad areas of learning but also within national curriculum priorities and general capabilities expected of students. National curricula in these three countries have developed at different times and the ways these priorities might have changed in each iteration can be critiqued in relation to specific histories, cultures and educational politics, here abbreviated to edu-politics. The task also includes interrogating the ‘policy as numbers’ pressures that are played out in vernacular ways in each nation, for example, in national ‘high stakes’ literacy and numeracy testing regimes and hyper surveillance of teachers and ‘under-performing’ schools.
The theoretical framework of this paper is developed using Bernstein’s (1971) three message systems of schooling, and social reproduction of pedagogic discourse (1990) focusing on the ways health education curriculum is portrayed in the national curriculum statements in the three countries. We provide select examples of how education systems and schools respond to triggers such as top-down OECD pressure and bottom-up community demand (c.f. O'Toole, 2017 the exponential increase of psychosocial mental health programs).
Method
This paper draws upon policy, curriculum, and media text analyses and case study methodology, including interviews with teachers tasked with updating health education curricula in primary (elementary) schools.
Expected Outcomes
We attempt to illustrate through our argument and these case study examples of how such edu-politics shape the nature of health education provided to students, particularly those in urban, vulnerable and under-served communities, with a view to identifying ongoing implications for respective national-school curriculum policies and the systems in which they are recontextualised.
References
Ball, S.J. (2004). Class strategies and the Educational Market: The Middle Classes and Social Advantage. British Journal of Educational Studies, 52 (4), 433-436. Beckett, L. (2014). Raising Teachers’ Voice on Achievement in Urban Schools in England: An Introduction. The Urban Review, 46(5), 783–799. Bernstein, B. (1971). Class, Codes and Control: Theoretical Studies Towards a Sociology of Language. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Bernstein, B. (1990). Class, Codes and Control Vol 3: The structuring of pedagogic discourse. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Carr, J., & Beckett, L. (2016). Analysing the present: drawing on the legacy of Vere Foster in public policy debate on futures of schools. Policy Futures in Education, 14(8) 1060–1077. Glasswell, K., Singh, P., McNaughton, S. (2016). Partners in Design: Co-Inquiry for Quality Teaching in Disadvantaged Schools. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, Vol. 39, No. 1, pp.20-30. Catriona O’Toole, (2017). Towards dynamic and interdisciplinary frameworks for school-based mental health promotion. Health Education, 117 (5),452-468, https://doi.org/10.1108/HE-11-2016-0058 Sellar, S., & Lingard, R. (2014). The OECD and the expansion of PISA: New global modes of governance in education. British Education Research Journal, 40(6), 917-936. Singh, P. (2002). Pedagogising knowledge: Bernstein’s Theory of the Pedagogic Device. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 23(4) DOI: 10.1080/0142569022000038422. Whatman, S. L., & Singh, P. (2015). Constructing health and physical education curriculum for Indigenous girls in a remote Australian community. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 20(2), 215-230. doi:10.1080/17408989.2013.868874
Programme by Network 2019
00. Central Events (Keynotes, EERA-Panel, EERJ Round Table, Invited Sessions)
Network 1. Continuing Professional Development: Learning for Individuals, Leaders, and Organisations
Network 2. Vocational Education and Training (VETNET)
Network 3. Curriculum Innovation
Network 4. Inclusive Education
Network 5. Children and Youth at Risk and Urban Education
Network 6. Open Learning: Media, Environments and Cultures
Network 7. Social Justice and Intercultural Education
Network 8. Research on Health Education
Network 9. Assessment, Evaluation, Testing and Measurement
Network 10. Teacher Education Research
Network 11. Educational Effectiveness and Quality Assurance
Network 12. LISnet - Library and Information Science Network
Network 13. Philosophy of Education
Network 14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research
Network 15. Research Partnerships in Education
Network 16. ICT in Education and Training
Network 17. Histories of Education
Network 18. Research in Sport Pedagogy
Network 19. Ethnography
Network 20. Research in Innovative Intercultural Learning Environments
Network 22. Research in Higher Education
Network 23. Policy Studies and Politics of Education
Network 24. Mathematics Education Research
Network 25. Research on Children's Rights in Education
Network 26. Educational Leadership
Network 27. Didactics – Learning and Teaching
Network 28. Sociologies of Education
Network 29. Reserach on Arts Education
Network 30. Research on Environmental und Sustainability Education
Network 31. Research on Language and Education (LEd)
Network 32. Organizational Education
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