Transcript DPU 2009 - Aarhus Universitet

Role modalities in urban health
education
I M PA C T O N C H I L D R E N ’ S A N D A D O L E S C E N T ’ S
R I S K A N D H E A LT H
K A R E N W I S TO F T P H D A S S O C I AT E D P R O F E S S O R
D E PA R T M E N T O F E D U C AT I O N ( D P U )
AARHUS UNIVERSITY
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Introduction
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 An important feature of contemporary welfare state




management is urban health education
Includes alliances and partnerships for developing public
health policies and educational practices that positively
impact on the health of people – here children and adolescents
Health promotion (in the traditional sense) has been replaced
by new managerial institutions and new cross-professional
partnerships
For children and young people, this managerial revolution has
meant new roles
The premises for their inclusion into health promotion have
changed
Role modalities
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 This paper investigates
role expectations in
relation to urban
strategies of health
education and promotion
in Denmark
Research project ’Children at risk’ (1.9.2007-31.7.2010)
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 Cooperative research funded by the Danish National
Research Council (FSE)
 Researchers from two Danish research environments:
 Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy at Copenhagen
Business School (CBS)
 Department of Education (DPU), Aarhus University
 General objective:

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To assess and compare tendencies in public health
management and health education aimed at children and
young people
Settings: the 98 Danish municipalities
Data collection - 4 separate studies
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I. Pilot study – in four selected municipalities: analyses of
their health policies, organizational diagrams and interviews
with their public health managers and coordinators (N=47)
II. Survey - telephone interviews with the health managers,
directors and leading health coordinators in the Danish
municipalities (N=72/98)
III. Focus group interviews with pupils aged 13-14, from 18
different school classes geographically spread across the
country (N=108)
IV. Comparative case study in five selected municipalities. The
comparisons are based on local health promotion programs
and focus group interviews with health professionals (N=36)
Combined empirical perspectives
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A. Health management perspective and a health-
pedagogical perspective: the interplay between the
political-administrative level and the professional
level.
B. Semantic perspective: concepts and meanings
embodied in the discourses that have an impact on
how children and adolescents’ health is put into words
C. Values perspective: the type of knowledge, values
and norms that are put into play through health
efforts for children and adolescents
This approach links a value-reflected interaction between health
professionals and children/adolescents (Wistoft 2009, 2010)
System theoretical framework
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 In a system theoretical perspective the matter of
inclusion becomes a question of both the communication
about people as certain role bearers and a question of
the ways people as persons react towards generalised role
communications (Luhmann 1995; Stichweh 2005; Stäheli
2007).
 Combined elements from system theory and health
education theory in order to grasp different semantic
modalities of inclusion of children and young people.
Empirical investigations
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In terms of making certain roles become popular
in urban health education - in order for children
and young people to become interested in
wearing the roles - and by wearing the roles they
are becoming recognisable and communicative
II. In terms of preparation for participation in
behavioural activities such as co-decision making,
different preventive initiatives and personal
reactions are becoming recognisable.
I.
Conclusion of the project
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 A new kind of identity – ‘the risky child’ is
attributed to the children as they are involved
 Being confronted with different risks of childhood
coming for example from eating fatty food,
drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes or having
sexual relationships, the children are brought into a
moral, political and lifestyle oriented discourse on
risks
Information consumers
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 In this discourse their identity (as children or
adolescents) is at stake as they are expected to
participate as ‘well-experienced information
consumers’
 They are expected to be rational, qualified, and
future oriented participants
 Often the health promotion information concerns a
distant future in which the children risk invisible
threats
Health  two discourses on risk
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A. A ‘free-choose’ discourse/the ability to choose freely.
The individual children and adolescents chooses what is best for
him or her, and takes a, hopefully, well-informed risk (basically a
risk taking attitude)
B. A preventive discourse in which a opposite attitude is
suggested, namely, to avoid future risks
 The two discourses are only seemingly in opposition
 They both participate in identity constructions that turn
children into ‘risky people’, potentially risk bearers,
risk information consumers, risk prioritisers and
choosers
Risk reflexivity
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 The paper concerns a thesis for further development,
that present urban health is accompanied by certain
requests concerning the use of health information:
 To the individual, this means that the role as healthy
involves information processing and reflexive activities
modulating between being a risk-taker and risk avoider
 Already in childhood, the risk-mode of relating to one
self is promoted. The role as healthy is also a role of
risk reflection – and the purpose of urban health
education
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Thank you for
your attention!
Karen Wistoft
Departement of
Education (DPU)
Faculty of Arts
Aarhus Universitet
Campus Emdrup
+45 2613 2653
[email protected]
www.dpu.dk/om/ka
wi