Research question: From conversations with teenagers, what do pre-service teachers learn about 21^st century youth cultural influences on adolescents’ health and wellbeing? 

Purpose of research study

Two fields of research are pertinent to this study. The first is that of global youth culture influences on young people’s thinking and behaviour and the implications for their mental, physical and social health (Kenway & Bullen, 2001).  Amongst adolescent school-students a plethora of beliefs, attitudes and group-think have significant – and often misunderstood – influence on the way they think and behave (Kroger, 2004; Nayak & Kehily, 2008). Understanding this is particularly important for health education teachers in secondary schools, as is acknowledging the meaning and characteristics of youth health and wellbeing in the early 21^st Century.  

The second field of research is teacher education. Educating pre-service teachers to develop a critical awareness of socio-ecological determinants of adolescent health contributes to the development of effective, well-informed health education teachers. 

Background

Examining and processing young people’s lives in changing times, and exploring how adolescents’ experiences vary over time and place (France, 2007) is valuable learning for pre-service teachers (student teachers) of school-based health education. 

In 2011, as a course assessment requirement for a teacher education course in health education, student teachers were asked to engage in informal conversation with at least one teenager about his / her interests, beliefs, activities and perceptions of youth culture influences. The assessment task required the student teachers to analyse and discuss their impressions of contemporary teenage worlds. By providing the student teachers with an opportunity to hear about the world of adolescents through dialogue with teenagers, and later sharing these conversations with class colleagues, important course objectives were achieved. Having opportunity to develop currency with the trends, fads and practices that define teenagers’ realities elicited in the student teachers a deeper insight into, and empathy with the age group they will be teaching. The participants also demonstrated a growing critical consciousness of underpinning and broader societal influences on teenage populations’ health and safety in today’s world, (West, 2004; Whyte & Wyn, 2008) and recognition of the implications of these for their owning teaching of health education. A socially critical analysis of social media and Internet activities as social determinants of health for adolescents in today’s world is discussed in this paper.

Relevance to European  / International dimension

Because young people exist in a global environment made possible by Internet and social media activities, the relevance of the findings and discussion in this paper extend across space and place. Children and young people exist in a world where culture has become increasingly defined by technological and cyber realities. Many of the influences of these activities on young people’s health and wellbeing can no longer be defined within the traditional national, cultural or gender divides.

Bird, S. & Tapp, A. (2008). Social marketing and the meaning of cool. Social Marketing Quarterly, 14:1, 18-29. France, A. (2007). Understanding youth in late modernity. Maidenhead, UK: The McGraw-Hill Companies. Ito, M., Horst, H., Bittanti, M., Boyd, D., Herr-Stephenson, B., Lange, P. G., Pascoe, C. J. & Robinson, L. (2008). Living and learning with new media: summary of findings from the digital youth project. Chicago: MacArthur Foundation. Jamieson, P. & Romer, D. (2008). The changing portrayal of adolescents in the media since 1950. University of Pennsylvania, USA: Oxford University Press. Kenway, J. & Bullen, E. (2001). Consuming children: education – entertainment – advertising. Buckingham, UK: Open University. Knight, C. (2007). A resilience framework: perspectives for educators, Health Education, 107(6), 543-555. Kroger, J. (2004). Identity in adolescence: the balance between self and other. Hove, UK: Routledge. Milner, M. (2004). Freaks, geeks and cool kids: American teenagers, schools and the culture of consumption. New York: Routledge. Mogford, E., Gould, L. & DeVoght, A. (2010). Teaching critical health literacy in the US as a means to action on the social determinants of health. Health Promotion International, 26(1), 4 – 13. Nayak, A. & Kehily, M. J. (2008). Gender, youth and culture: young masculinities and femininities. New York / Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Ryan, M. (2007). Critical pedagogy and youth: negotiating complex discourse worlds. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 15(2), 245-262. Sinkinson, M. (2010). Conversations with teenagers: incorporating a study of youth cultures into pre-service teachers’ health education courses. Journal of Adult Learning Aotearoa New Zealand, 38(1), 57-74. West, C. (2004). The necessary engagement with youth culture. In Democracy matters: wining the fight against imperialism. New York: Penguin Group> Chapter 6; Pp. 174-178. White, R. & Wyn, J. (2008). Youth & society: exploring the social dynamics of youth experience. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.