Creating Reflexive Health Promotion Practitioners: Our Process of Integrating Reflexivity in the Development of a Health Promotion Course

Abstract

In response to accreditation of our Master of Public Health program, integration of Indigenous public health competencies, and implementation of the health promotion practitioner accreditation in Australia, we designed a core Master of Public Health promotion course. In this article, we begin by describing the three sets of competencies that informed our course development. Despite consensus that reflexivity is central to effective health promotion practice, there was limited reference to reflexive practice within established competencies. However, given our broader alignment with Freire’s philosophy of “conscientization,” we came to realize that reflexivity was central to our pedagogical framework. In what follows, we describe the conceptualization of reflexivity that guided course development and how reflexivity was integrated into the lecture and assessment content. We highlight how reflection, as part of the assessment, was applied as a means of engaging students in their journey through understanding the inextricably social, political, economic, and cultural nature of health and health promotion practice.