HEALTH EDUCATION PROGRAMS IN THE GREEK PRIMARY SCHOOL When choice favours “bread & olive tree”, “talking about babies” remains “innovation on hold”! Margarita Gerouki • •
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Background For the Greek Ministry of Education, “health education” is part of a range of “innovative activities” designed to address societal needs. Without being a curriculum subject, the Ministry has been encouraging the development of health education programs since 2000-2001 for the elementary and some years earlier for the secondary. Educators voluntarily implement health education programs by selecting a topic from the following thematic units: nutrition , cardiovascular diseases - physical exercise, consumers’ education, road and vehicle education – prevention of road accidents, dental hygiene, addictions – mental health, and sexuality and relationships education. Aim of this study Guiding hypothesis: there is a significant unbalanced distribution in teachers’ choices regarding the thematic unit for developing health education (HE) programs affecting negatively the choice of Sexuality and Relationships (SRE) topics. Secondary tasks: (1) to discover factors that obstruct the development of SRE programs as opposed to others that enhance the development of different programs and (2) levels of teachers’ awareness on the possibility to implement SRE programs and of the existing material on the subject. Methods A questionnaire (17 closed and 5 open questions) was posted to the 68 health education coordinators (educators responsible for the development, coordination, implementation and evaluation of the HE projects) all over Greece. Closed questions included 7 multiple choice, 5 ranking and 5 yes/no questions. Results have been processed using SPSS 11.5 Results
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34 answers were received, reflecting response rate 50%. Coordinators represented 4 300 primary schools (75% of the total number of primary schools). In those schools 2 066 HE programs were developed (year 2003-2004) and 33 of them were SRE programs, rate 1.60% “Nutrition” was by far the most popular category for developing health education programs. Half of the respondents place “Nutrition” in the first place and another 30% in the second place of popularity (in fig places 1-4). Two thirds of the respondents (68%) believe that SRE is the least popular thematic unit to develop HE projects (in fig places 5-7).
Most popular
popular No
%
Nutrition
response Road education – Accident prevention Dental hygiene Addictions – Mental health Cardiovascular diseases – Physical ex. Consumers’ education Sexuality & Relationships education
No
17 6
17.6 3 3 -
2 nd popular %
50.0
10
No
3 rd popular %
29.4
1
No
% 2.9
1
4 th popular No
% 2.9
5 th popular No
-
%
No -
6 th popular
Least
% -
No
8 23.5 10 29.4 4 11.8 1 2.9 5 (14.7%) 8.8 7 20.6 8 23.5 5 14.7 4 11.8 1 2.9 1 2.9 Total 8.8 4 11.8 6 17.6 8 23.5 5 14.7 3 8.8 34 2 5.9 4 11.8 9 26.5 11 32.4 3 8.8 2 5.9 7 20.6 7 20.6 11 32.4 2 5.9 3 8.8 3 8.8 23 67.6
Discussion For respondents, “Nutrition” offers a rich selection of different topics for discussions. Specific issues related to the school and family life of pupils (change in nutrition habits, the quality of the food pupils bring or buy at school, child obesity etc.) make the particular subject attractive to work with. Also, from the view point of educators “Nutrition” is an “easy” subject. Teachers do not need specific training, there is plenty of material to develop the programs and plenty of references on the school books.
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Positive factors for “Nutrition” as a choice of thematic unit Factors related to… the particular thematic unit: plenty of material & references in the school books plenty of topics to discuss it is a contemporary “issue” of interest the students: change in the traditional nutrition habits students’ particular needs/troubles students’ particular choices/behaviours at school the teachers: educators do not need special training, “easy topic” they can see the outcome of the program they have attended seminars on the subject
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Negative factors that obstruct the selection of SRE Factors related to… * the particular thematic unit: it is a difficult / dangerous / taboo issue lack of material / research the teachers: lack of training feelings of insecurity, embarrassment the students and their families objections from parents young age of students the Ministry of Education not promoted effectively from the Pedagogical Institute negative attitude from administrators lack of cooperation with experts (psychologists, social workers)
For respondents, many reasons make SRE unappealing for developing HE programs. The most important is the lack of teachers’ training. Additionally, the content of the subject is characterised as “difficult”, “dangerous”, in the sense that it might upset classroom processes, and “taboo”. A great part of the respondents believe that possible objections from the parents’ part is another obstructive factor. Respondents believe that SRE has not been promoted from the Ministry of education either. There isn’t cooperation with specialists and no particular material for developing projects. Also, the subject is not well-accepted by administrators such as school principles, educational counsellors etc. • • • •
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Regarding teachers’ awareness, three quarters of the teachers either do not know at all (21%), or almost not at all (53%), about their right to develop SRE programs. 47% of respondents believe that teachers have no idea and 21% a slight idea, on the existence of some material developed for SRE programs. The far most needed element for increasing the number of SRE programs is teachers’ training (62%). The second important factor is the subject to be promoted by the Ministry (23.5%). Implications and future steps This survey functions as a base on a PhD research project that follows and will be on development of research-based, effective teachers’ training program. Data from this survey offer additional arguments on the on-going discussion about successful implementation of educational innovations. It poses the question whether the current situation on development of health education programs satisfies the aims and targets of Health Education as these are stated by the Pedagogical Institute. Finally, it will offer potential guidelines for those who believe in the need of systematic sexuality and relationships education for the Greek school age children.