Session Information
08 SES 10, Health Promoting Schools and Health Education: Curriculum and Implementation Issues in a European Perspective
Paper Session
Contribution
Schools have been identified as an ideal setting to promote the health of children and adolescents, as well as teachers, school staff and parents (WHO 1986). At least since the 1990s European countries have started to establish different structures to implement health promotion (HP) in their school systems. The prevailing structures on a national and regional level – i.e. the actors involved, the distribution of responsibilities, the resources, etc. – have a strong impact on the implementation of interventions and innovations such as school HP. Different countries have different possible courses of action, but so far little is known about beneficial structures. This study focuses on the case of HP implementation in the Scottish school system using complexity theory as a theoretical framework (Cilliers 1998, Rickles et al. 2007). The main research questions were: What were the important steps in the implementation process? And: What were the necessary structures, frameworks and relevant actors on a national level?
Complexity theory understands the different actors and organisations involved in the implementation of school HP as complex systems. The health system, the political system and the school system each have their own interests and follow their own logics (Lange and Schimank 2004, Willke 2007, Cilliers 1998). In the case of school HP implementation, however, they have a common interest, which they have to negotiate about and reach agreement on. By interviewing different experts in the field of school HP in Scotland and analysing key policy documents, different phases of implementation were identified. In each of these phases different actors play specific roles and the issue of school health is communicated with a different focus.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Cilliers, P. (1998). Complexity and postmodernism: understanding complex systems. London: Routledge Corbin, Juliet and Strauss, Anselm. (2008) Basics of Qualitative Research. Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory. 3e. Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore, Sage Lange, S. & Schimank, U. (2004). A Political Sociology for Complex Societies: Niklas Luhmann. In K.Nash & A. Scott (Eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Political Sociology (pp. 60-70). Oxford, UK & Carlton, Australia: Blackwell Publishing LTS (2009) Curriculum for Excellence. Learning and Teaching Scotland Rickles, Dean, Hawe, Penelope, and Shiell, Alan. (2007) A simple guide to chaos and complexity. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 61(11), 933-937 Scottish Executive (2003) Improving Health in Scotland. The Challenge. Scottish Executive WHO. (1986). Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. World Health Organization. Geneva, WHO Willke, H. (2007). Smart Governance: Governing the Global Knowledge Society. Frankfurt am Main, New York: Campus-Verlag Yin, R. K. (2009). Case Study Research. Design and Methods. (4th ed. ed.) California: Sage Publication
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