Global Health Promotion

Views of Health Promotion Online

www.vhpo.net

Dialogues in Progress

CompHP

Developing competencies and professional standards for health promotion capacity building in Europe

International Collaboration on Teacher Training / Education in Health Promotion & Health Education (TT / E HP & HE)

Background and objectives
Steering committee and participants
Activities
- Working group on research
- Working group on the organisation of a symposium for the 20th IUHPE World Conference
References
Links to collaborators

Background and objectives

Schools are considered to be settings for both health education and health promotion. However the core business of schools is often more focussed on educational outcomes, rather than reducing health problems. In most countries, schools give low priority to health promotion and school staffs, (mainly teachers), have little awareness of their role in health promotion. Studies show that teachers who have received health promotion training tend to be involved more frequently in health promotion projects and have a more comprehensive approach to health education. Given the challenges posed by the limited priority given by schools to health education and promotion it is little wonder that pre-service and in-service staff education is a significant undertaking.

This initiative aims to join international forces to strengthen and advocate for teacher education in health promotion.

The main goals of this initiative are to:

Identify and share relevant information and resources on health education and health

promotion in teacher education

Stimulating international partnership work

Advocate for inclusion of health promotion and health education in the training of all teachers

Supporting the institutes/colleges/universities in the provision of initial and in-service teacher education

Promote international research in the field

Activities

1- Working group on research

The aims of the research program are to:

Describe the different international practices in term of teacher education in HE/HP.

Identify and map the different models underlying TE in HE/HP.

Analyse the determining factors of the activity of teacher educators in HE/HP

Methodology

Phase 1 : first questionnaire and finding partners, deadline September 2009 (2009)
Phase 2 : case studies (interviews, video and texts) (2010)
Phase 3 : quantitative survey (2011)

More information on the webpage of the University of Limerick.

2- Working group on the organisation of a symposium for the 20th IUHPE World Conference

This initiative was launched the the 8th IUHPE European Regional Conference in September 2008, where the gaps and assests in the field of teacher training were set out and a call for wider participation was made. In addition to the conference, other professionals have also been invited to express their interest in this network.

The next step is to organise a global symposium at the 20th IUHPE World Conference in order to:

1. Bring together and build a global network with wide geographic representation of professionals working in the field of teacher education from diverse backgrounds and affiliations (association, university, school of education, support service, etc.).
2. Take stock of the present state and future developments in this field internationally by Identifying and sharing relevant information and resources on teacher training in health education and health promotion. The symposium will build on the firsts results from an international survey that will conducted prior to the conference.
3. Make link with other networks or task forces which focus on cross-cutting themes like capacity building in health promotion, settings-based health promotion (workplace, prisons, etc.).

Prior to the IUHPE World Conference, the group hosted a workshop during the 3rd European Conference on Health Promoting Schools which took place on June 15-17, 2009, in Vilnius, Lithuania. Click here to learn about the session's content and objectives.