Critical health education studies: Reflections on a new conference and this themed symposium

Abstract

In May 2018, a group of scholars gathered in the icy and sunlit grandeur of Queenstown (Aotearoa New Zealand) to talk, debate and share ideas about health education. The conference aimed to trouble and disrupt traditional kinds of health education and, instead, suggest possibilities for the critical study of health education – both in terms of theory and practice. This introduction to the special themed symposium is a reflection by the six authors on that new conference – Critical Studies in Health Education (CHESS) – and what it aimed to achieve. The authors discuss and define the intent of critical approaches to health education, and reflect on their experiences of the conference, as well as the future of the field. Papers in this special themed symposium of Health Education Journal are also introduced.

A peer-led non-diet behaviour change intervention: FitU

“…This study examined the nutrition and PA-related attitudinal and behavioural changes resulting from a peer-led non-diet behaviour change intervention, FitU. Given the limited success of weight-based behaviour change interventions (Nordmo et al, 2020) and the call for more critical approaches to health promotion (Fitzpatrick and Allen, 2019; Fitzpatrick et al, 2019), finding alternative approaches to campus health promotion is warranted.…”

“…Scholars have recently argued for a critical turn in health education and promotion in which professionals problematise the narrow and individual-focused scope of much health education and promotion, question the health knowledge production process, as well as examine who is harmed by dominant health discourses and practices and what benefits are actually gleaned (Fitzpatrick and Allen, 2019; Fitzpatrick et al, 2019; Piggin, 2014). One such effort has been to question the weight and obesity-centric approaches that are dominant in health promotion because, despite their prevalence (e.g.…”

Environmental attunement in health, sport and physical education

“…This Special Issue, like many good ideas in academic spirit, was conceived through a themed symposium. We presented 'Health as more-than-human: environmental attunement in health education' at the inaugural Critical Health Studies (CHESS) Conference in May 2018, Queenstown, New Zealand (Fitzpatrick et al, 2019) under a simple (and optimistic) conversational premise; to 'grow new grass' rather than lament that 'the grass is (or could) be greener' elsewhere. The purpose was to expand possibilities and practices of educational and embodied connections to environmental knowledge of place, space and nature 1 in health, sport and physical education.…”