AARE Annual National Conference 2013 - Adelaide, Australia

Photo from the AARE 2013 Annual International Conference http://aare2013.com.au

The 2013 Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) Annual International Conference kicks off today with pre-conference workshops and the President's reception. The conference is being held in Adelaide this year, and there will be a strong attendance from the School of Education at Flinders, including a symposium involving myself and four other colleagues chaired by our Deputy Dean Kay Whitehead.

Our symposium is entitled Repositioning student teachers in teacher education, and focuses on some of the teacher education research happening at Flinders in the area of Arts integration, Health education and equity.

The occupation of teaching is transformative intellectual work. At Flinders University we recognise education as a public good and teachers’ fundamental roles as citizens in constructing democratic societies. To these ends, we understand that student teachers need to participate in a wide range of reflective and reflexive practices that foster their creativity, stimulate personal growth, contribute to current knowledge and enhance their understanding of the world and their place in it. Sponsored by Flinders Research in Early Childhood Education and the Social Inquiry Network, this symposium focuses on the ways in which we are repositioning student teachers in the learning process in three topics from our teacher education program. Jennifer Fane and Grant Banfield problematize first year primary and secondary student teachers’ understandings of health and introduce them to the practice of thinking socially about health and Health Education. Susan Krieg, Jess Jovanovic and Helen Bernstone work with local Adelaide artists and student teachers to reconceptualise the Arts in early childhood education. Amy Hamilton’s research documents an innovative partnership with an Australian Zoo to prepare student teachers for teaching and integrating the arts through the use of 'big ideas' of Cross Curricular Priorities, and General Capabilities (The Australian Curriculum) in primary schools. All of these presentations position student teachers as active learners and citizens, challenge them to engage reflexively with their studies, and work towards a more equitable education in a rapidly changing world.

The research project I am working on is a collaborative project between myself and fellow lecturer in Health Education Grant Banfield, alongside two colleagues from the Student Learning Centre at Flinders, Kathy Brady and Samantha Schulz. The following abstract is a part of our research that I will be presenting at AARE

Pre service teacher beliefs and knowledge of health are largely constructed by widely held societal views of health as the unproblematic outcome of ‘healthy’ lifestyle decisions and the responsibility of individuals. While Health Education literature is clear about societal views of health, these views run counter to sociological and epidemiological evidence. This individualistic view of health, which dominate Western liberal societies like Australia, is in direct contrast to a social view of Health which seeks to offer a deeper understanding of the power-relational aspects of health at play in Australian and global society. This mandatory first year Health Education topic introduces students to the idea and practice of thinking socially about health, aiming to develop a sociological imagination for students who, generally, intend to be Health and Physical Education teachers in primary or secondary schools. This research seeks to investigate the extent to which a first year undergraduate teaching topic is successful in shifting student thinking from an individualistic to social view of health, thus supporting their future Health Education practices. The research uses the analysis of student written work and individual student interviews to identify pedagogical and organizational features of the topic that contribute to student academic engagement, and the growth of learner understanding of the social nature of health. Discussed are findings from the data which seek to evaluate the success of the topic in shifting student thinking; and considerations for effective practices in pre service teacher Health Education.

I'm very much looking forward to the conference and sharing our ongoing research project, as well as connecting with others working in educational research. A warm welcome to Adelaide, my adopted home, for all visiting delegates and looking forward to meeting colleagues in the field at the reception tonight and throughout the week.

Is food this confusing?

I came across an article today where a Manitoba mother was fined by her child's daycare for providing an 'incomplete' lunch. Casting aside the obvious absurdity of fining families over lunches, as unhealthy lunches are often a outcome of food insecurity to which additional financial penalty would make worse, the unbelievable element to this story is what was determined to be an 'unhealthy lunch' and the 'solution' to the problem.

The two children, who attended the daycare centre responsible for the fines, were sent to school with lunches consisting of roast-beef, potatoes, carrots, an orange, and milk. Despite the fact this this lunch is full of lean protein, vegetables, fruit, and dairy products (all in a low processed form) the daycare decided it was an incomplete lunch because it did not contain a grain, as outlined in the Canadian Food Guide as a necessity for a healthy meal. There solution to this 'incomplete' lunch? A $5 per lunch fine and supplementing the lunch with Ritz crackers, a highly processed food high in fat, refined grains, and salt.

While I understand why the daycare centre is concerned about lunches, and why the Canada Food guide is an appropriate tool to use in guiding children and families eating practices, the complete lack of common sense or logic in evaluating food as 'healthy' speaks to the widespread misinformation and disconnect citizens in developed nation have with food.

While the Canada Food guide is helpful, health promotion tools need to be used as guidelines, not laws, and particular family needs, preferences, skills, and access need to be taken into account when tackling the very difficult job of increasing health literacy within the population.

Policing individuals food choices and fining 'offenders' is simply another symptom of our societies promulgation of 'responsibilisation', an inevitable byproduct of Neoliberalism. Responsibilization, as the abdication of responsibility of the government for putting controls or limits on the way food is marketed to families and children,  the cost of healthy food, or the availability of processed food, becomes a vehicle for fining offenders instead of addressing social determinants of health and making change possible.

If parents, educators, children, and people in general struggle to even identify healthy food, how can we move as a whole to a place of health literacy? While there are no simple answers, clearly a punitive paradigm based on health guidelines is inappropriate, nor does it support the health of children and families. Educators need to work with families, and have the health literacy necessary to accurately educate. Educators also need to be supported with policies and practices put in place that require stricter labelling controls of food which greatly contribute to ubiquitous food confusion contributing to health misinformation. There are no quick fixes to health literacy, and it's a long road ahead.