Evaluating efforts to enhance health and wellbeing in Scottish secondary schools

Thorburn, Malcolm

doi:10.1080/00220272.2016.1167246

Cited by 10 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…This has often led to schools continuing with 'health weeks' even though these annual interventions have been widely criticized by policy stakeholders for their superficiality. Thorburn and Dey (2017) conclude that the current practice arrangements reflect only a partial engagement with the therapeutic culture ambitions Scotland aspires towards and as such there is currently a rather awkward merging of a traditional subject-based curriculum with newly framed generic curriculum imperatives and advised contexts for learning.…”

Section: Privatisation Reforms and Health Work In Schoolsmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…These intentions reflect Scottish aspirations to replicate a Scandinavian-type model of public policy, where there is an on-going commitment to all students. However, in practice, the quality of integrated learning, teaching and assessment has proved variable with school engagement often being delayed until more policy certainty and support materials are provided (Thorburn & Dey, 2017). Such delays have often made it difficult to assist teachers in adopting a more holistic view of health and wellbeing amidst ongoing concerns over lack of expertise and confidence in knowing how to make connections across learning e.g., in terms of enhancing students' self-esteem, social interaction and engagement in learning conversations.…”

Section: Privatisation Reforms and Health Work In Schoolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Privatisation reforms and health work in schools: the end of the beginning

Thorburn

2020

Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education

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This discursive paper selectively reviews the empirical papers informing the major part of the special issue. In doing so it focuses particularly on issues which are apparent across many papers. One major point of contrast is the advanced state of marketization in schools situated at the lower socioeconomic margins. This is relative to those schools in more socially advantaged areas where a more selective and rather insular and individual approach to privatisation engagement was noted. Bisecting this encroaching viz. cosy continuum was further unease about the construction of curriculum arrangements and the precise position teachers' level of expertise held within these provisions. While applauding the insightful advances in understanding the empirical papers in the special issue have yielded, the paper concludes by arguing for a more expansive and wider engagement with social and economic theory if health work in schools is to progress further and reach beyond its current end of the beginning stage of development.

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Section: Privatisation Reforms and Health Work In Schoolsmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Privatisation Reforms and Health Work In Schoolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Privatisation reforms and health work in schools: the end of the beginning

Thorburn

2020

Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education

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“…Our analysis highlighted how ongoing development of curricula within each of the UK contexts has allowed for different pedagogical approaches and principles to be developed. The focus on pedagogy within the context of PE has an extensive history of development (Thorburn, 2017). Over the years, such development has led to many discussions regarding the ways in which pedagogy is conceptualised and practiced (McMillan, 2017).…”

Section: Main Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A comparative analysis of discourses shaping physical education provision within and across the UK

Gray

Sandford

Stirrup

et al. 2021

European Physical Education Review

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Set within the context of a longitudinal project that seeks to engage physical education teachers from the four countries of the UK in cross-border curriculum analysis, dialogue and learning, the current study lays the foundation by mapping and comparing curriculum discourses that currently shape how physical education is conceptualised in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. As a team of researchers with affiliations to each of the four nations of the UK, we identified those curriculum documents from each context that were written to directly inform physical education teachers’ curriculum planning and enactment. We firstly identified those discourses evident in each document to understand how physical education is conceptualised within each curriculum, before engaging in a dialogical process that converged around how physical education is constructed similarly or differently within and across curricula. We found some variation in relation to how the concept of health is articulated. With the exception of the curriculum in Wales, we also found that performance discourses related to developing motor competencies for sports continue to dominate as the main purpose of physical education. Finally, there are several points of divergence in relation to how much agency or guidance teachers are afforded within each curriculum. The intention of this research is to initiate dialogue across each of the four nations, creating opportunities for learning so that, collectively, teachers can build capacity to contribute to future curricula and pedagogies in physical education.

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“…In sketching out how a middle path version of wellbeing could inform a workable approach in schools, the position adopted here reflects Sinkinson and Burrows (2011) belief that aligning wellbeing with particular learning areas runs counter to a more obvious whole school approach where the vast majority of teachers have an explicit responsible for wellbeing. This approach is favoured in spite of acknowledging that connecting wellbeing with everyday subject teaching raises questions over whether wellbeing can be suitably personal and vivid for students at a time when policy guidance often fails to provide teachers with the confidence to respond to students reporting of their wellbeing (Thorburn, 2017b). Therefore, proceeding with middle path pragmatic intentions comes with it a need to map out in further detail how a coherent mix of personal values and subject-related targets can plausibly connect with policy and planning aspirations to take forward improvements in subject teaching and personal wellbeing, and where there is also an enhanced focus on teachers' agency and students' wider school-based achievements.…”

Section: Middle Path Possibilities: Integrating Personal Wellbeing Smentioning

confidence: 99%

Personal well-being and curriculum planning: a critical comparative review of theory, policy and practice coherence

Thorburn

2018

Educational Review

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There is a heightened interest nowadays in educating for personal wellbeing based on the belief that schools can be a civilizing force for good and help make young people's lives more fulfilling and meaningful. At the same time, there is a premium placed on high quality subject teaching and academic achievement and on countries doing well on tables of international comparison. The degrees to which these priorities can be coherently pursued are discussed in this critical paper. The paper begins with a theoretical overview of wellbeing values before reviewing the extent to which these values are recognizable in policy guidelines in Australia, England, New Zealand and Scotland. The paper then outlines how a version of wellbeing could plausibly connect with policy and planning aspirations to take forward improvements in subject teaching and personal wellbeing, and where a middle path focus could benefit students' wider achievements and teachers' sense of agency.

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Evaluating efforts to enhance health and wellbeing in Scottish secondary schools

Cited by 10 publications

References 24 publications

Privatisation reforms and health work in schools: the end of the beginning

Privatisation reforms and health work in schools: the end of the beginning

A comparative analysis of discourses shaping physical education provision within and across the UK

Personal well-being and curriculum planning: a critical comparative review of theory, policy and practice coherence

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