Factors influencing the contribution of staff to health education in schools

Abstract

Understanding the contribution of the whole-school staff to health education (HE) is an important goal in HE research. This study aimed to identify the views of staff (principals; teachers; school nurses and doctors; counsellors and administrative, maintenance, canteen and cleaning staff) regarding the nature of their contribution to HE. The research is based on 207 semi-structured interviews of staff in a sample of five French middle schools (grade 6-9). Content analysis was performed using Bardin's method. The results showed that staff members have different views of their role, three main roles were identified: (i) as an educator in everyday life issues (72%); (ii) individual support, listening (14%) and (iii) taking part in collective projects and facilitation (14%). Professional status has a significant influence on the view they have of their contribution to HE. These results show that in order to facilitate consistent implementation of HE, schools need to be supported to build HE policy (need analysis, definition of priorities and partnerships) and also to develop the means by which an inclusive and real sharing of common culture among all staff can happen; this is not limited to teaching staff but includes non-teaching staff also.

Applying Effective Health Education Programs in Greek Schools: Exploring the Role of Teachers Training

“…Taking into consideration that health and education are inextricably linked (Jourdan et al, 2010) and that learning is about building a whole set of competences (3rd European Conference on Health Promoting Schools, 2009), the implementation of health education programs is an issue that calls upon the professional competencies of teachers to enable students to gain life skills and abilities. This study investigated whether teachers are trained in the implementation of health education programs in Greek schools, as well as the degree of their self-evaluation regarding the appropriateness of their training as far as health education program effective implementation is concerned.…”

Promoting physical activity in secondary schools

“…Whilst some teachers identified examples of whole school strategies that were adopted by their schools, such as health events/days/weeks and active travel, there was relatively little evidence of there being a collective responsibility or coordinated effort, or of their recognition of the multiple influences which impact on young people's physical activity. Limitations in the implementation of whole school approaches in practice have similarly been reported in the literature with relatively little attention reported to be afforded to environmental or community strategies in particular (Cardon et al, 2012;Deschesnes et al, 2003;Jourdan et al, 2010). At the same time, the challenge of adopting such approaches and the skills, time and resources needed to effectively do so have been recognised (Deschesnes et al, 2003;Fox et al, 2004;Larsen et al, 2013;Lee et al, 2003).…”

Towards an understanding of fidelity within the context of school-based health education

“…Such approaches often contradict the purposes and language of schools which are grounded in the building of general knowledge, skills and attitudes (St Leger 2006, Jourdan et al 2010. As Mohammadi and colleagues (2010) argue, 'sustaining interventions and sustaining their positive outcomes is likely to be more achievable in circumstances where schools can identify benefits that fit with their core business of education' (p. 249).…”