Policy windows for school-based health education about nutrition in Ecuador

Table 1

Bibliographic Data

ID22944726
AuthorsIrene Torres (0000-0002-0516-3090, Aarhus University, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume32
Issue2
Pagesdaw037
Publication date2016-05-11
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHealth Promotion International (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0957-4824 • E-ISSN: 1460-2245
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/heapro/daw037
PMID27169412
OpenAlexW2357462146
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited24

The aim of this study is to identify opportunities in policy framing for critical health education (CHE) about food and nutrition in Ecuadorian schools. The research engages in a dialogue between the perspectives of critical nutrition and political ecology, as it seeks to clarify and develop a critical perspective on health promotion and health education. Critical nutrition studies and political ecology highlight the need to consider and also act upon the broader connections of, and influences on, food and nutrition. In a CHE approach, students learn to address the wider determinants of health through critical, democratic and collaborative processes, anchored in and supported by the local community. Based on a textual analysis of health, food and education policy documents, the study finds that concrete norms endorse a biomedical stance. Consequently, focus remains on prescribing individual behavior, and schools are regarded as intervention settings, rather than a site for generating change as would be the case of health promotion using a CHE viewpoint. However, the study finds the possibility for developing a CHE perspective in the overarching rationale of 'good living', which reaffirms a holistic understanding of health, the need for critical and plural participation and the importance of the community. It is possible that the notion of community participation could facilitate introducing a CHE approach in Ecuadorian schools.

Database · Political science · Table (database) · Computer Science · Global Public Health Policies and Epidemiology · Medicine · Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet · School Health and Nursing Education

Tools

Open DOISci-HubOpen Access