Leading for Knowledge, Health and Wellbeing through the Coordination of Local Curriculum Processes

• In Event: School Leaders’ Knowledge, Responsibilities and Practices regarding Health Promotion in Schools and Communities

Proposal

Schools are recognized globally as important not only to promote knowledge, but also health and wellbeing. (OECD, 2017; WHO, 2021). While research within health education has focused on the multi professional work (Boot & de Vries, 2010; Carlsson, 2016, Kostenius, 2021) the focus of school leadership research has been on what successful school leaders do to improve students’ learning through the work of teachers (Day et al, 2016; Gumus et al., 2018; Leithwood et al., 2019). So far, there is a lack of research that considers the importance of schools as organisations in a multilevel system (Skott, 2021). This paper combines analytical perspectives of multi-professional work, leadership and governance in education to explore knowledge development in health promotion and the complexity of coordinating health promotion (as part of local curriculum processes) in schools and municipalities in Sweden.
The analysis in this paper is based on data gathered from three studies. The first study was an evaluation of a government funded national professional development programme on promoting health in schools targeted principals and members of school health teams. Based on the findings, four schools that were identified as being successful in promoting health, were selected for an in-depth study of coordination processes. Subsequently, a third study was initiated to study coordination processes on municipal level. Key data sources for the analysis in this paper include participants’ reflection notes during the professional development programme to capture knowledge development. Moreover, the in-depth analysis of coordination of health promotion locally is based on interviews (N=57) with participants, further teachers in the selected case schools, and superintendents at the municipal level.
Preliminary findings identify challenges of coordinating health promotion, vertically and horizontally, within the school organisation and across schools in the local school system. Global standards on heath promotion health promotion and wellbeing must be translated and institutionalized on national as well as local levels and leaders on the respective levels are key actors for such processes to succeed.

Author

• Pia Skott, Stockholm University