H/health Education in Primary Schools

Abstract

H/health education practice in primary schools is experienced by tamariki (children) in a multitude of ways. Some of these include: Health Education as a curriculum subject; health-oriented physical education (PE); school-wide health promotion activities; and the social discourses of health embodied in the everyday practices of classrooms and school communities. Acknowledging the blurring of boundaries that occurs between these experiences, we have chosen to use H/h within this chapter to illustrate the points of intersection or overlap between Health Education as a formal curriculum subject and health education as practice in schools and communities that is not framed in relation to official curriculum policy. Following a critical examination of primary school-based H/health education as theory, policy, curriculum and practice, we examine how H/health education is framed in the primary school with a particular focus on the competing conditions that shape teachers' practices. This is followed by a discussion of empirical findings around how tamariki think, talk and practice health and, to a lesser extent, well-being. Within the final section of this chapter, we draw on the voices of tamariki and teachers to consider what H/health education could be, where it could go and what steps schools and teachers could take in order to move towards meaningful change in practice.