KARIN O’SULLIVAN PHD CANDIDATE SCHOOL OF NURSING & MIDWIFERY TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN Health Promoting Schools: An exploration of how parents of children in primary schools in working class areas are constituted as ‘decision making subjects’.

Outline of Presentation Health Promotion: a political enterprise Health promoting schools and parental participation Current Study Methods

Health Promotion. A Contested Concept Health Promotion concerned with action. But action targeting what? (Tones, 2005) Depends on: How health is defined What is believed to determine health

Definitions Health? Absence of illness and disease “Well-being” Both Social determinants of health? Genetics Individual lifestyle behaviours Social and environmental factors

Health Promotion as orientated towards..... Salutogenic “that which gives birth to health” Vs. Pathogenic Prevention and treatment of illness and disease (Antonovsky, 1996)

Health Promoting Schools Settings Approach.. the ‘conditions’ for health.. ethos of the setting and that all the activities are mutually supportive and combine synergistically to improve the health and well-being of those who live or work.. there. (Tones & Green, 2004).. a school that constantly strengthens its capacity as a healthy setting for living, learning and working. (WHO, 1997)

Core values of Health Promotion/HPS’s Health is holistic and not solely concerned with disease and its prevention Health is about equity and social justice Health is about empowerment (WHO, 1997) Additional principles underpinning HPS: Participation, Democracy, Sustainability, Partnership

Health Promotion: A Political Enterprise “Its recognition that peace, shelter, food, income, a stable eco-system, sustainable resources, social justice and equity are basic pre-requisites for health implies major redistribution in power and wealth”. (Signal, 1998)

Health Promoting Schools. Ireland Early adopter of the HPS Approach SPHE Health promotion in schools Curriculum > Whole-school (settings)approach Lack of inclusion of children/parents in decisions on SPHE content Burtenshaw, 2003; Nic Gabhainn et al, 2010; SPHE Best Practice Guidelines, 2010

Literature/Experience Parent’s who participate/parents who don’t? Perception that parents are not interested? View that parents are ‘in the way’? Parental involvement vs. participation Clarke et al, 2010; Comiskey et al, 2012; Lahiff, 2000; Nic Gabhainn et al, (Attendance at HPS Summer School, Copenhagen, Denmark).

Study Question How are parents of children in primary schools in working class areas constructed as ‘decision making subjects’? To examine: If parents have access to decision making processes. How power & power relations play a role in that access. How this is negotiated by parents.

Study Approach Qualitative approach Move beyond an individual level analysis Wider social context A study of the production of subjectivities To learn how health promotion policy initiatives can engage more successfully in order to reduce health inequities and improve health outcomes.

Methods Secondary analysis of data from Healthy Schools Programme Evaluation Participant Observation One-to-one interviews with parents/school staff Discourse Analysis

References. Antonovsky, A. (1996) The salutogenic model as a theory to guide health promotion. Health Promotion International, 11, Balshem, M. (1993) Cancer in the Community. Class and Medial Authority. Smithsonian Institution Press: Washington Bambra, C., Fox, D., Scott-Samuel, A. (2005) Towards a politics of health. Health Promotion International, 20, 2, Burtenshaw, R. (2003) Review of Social Personal and Health Education at Junior Cycle. 11/08/2010http:// 11/08/2010 Clarke, A.M., O’Sullivan, M., and Barry, M. (2010) Context matters in Programme Implementation. Health Education 110(4) Comiskey, C.M., O’Sullivan, K., Quirke, M.B., Wynne, C., Kelly, P., and McGilloway, S. The Healthy Schools Programme Evaluation. Final Report. Forthcoming Lahiff, J. (2000) The Development of the Irish Network of Health Promoting School’s. Health Education 100 (3), Signal, L. (1998) The Politics of Health Promotion. Health Promotion International, 13, Department of Education and Science. SPHE Best Practice Guidelines 2010 Tones, K., (2005) Health Promotion in Schools: The Radical Imperative. In Clift, S., and Bruun Jensen, B. (eds) The Health Promoting School: International Advances in Theory, Evaluation and Practice. Copenhagen: Danish University of Education Press Tones, K., and Green, J. (204) Health Promotion: Planning and Strategies London:Sage WHO (1997) Conference Resolution, 1 st conference of the European Network of Health promoting Schools. Copenhagen :WHO Regional Office for Europe