Doctoral Dissertation Research: Autonomy & Constraint: Health Educators in Schools

University Of Cincinnati Main Campus, Cincinnati OH

Investigators

Abstract

Health education in U.S. schools is important, but the curricula and approach can differ across settings. While policymakers, school boards, and parents attempt to exert influence over health education policies, health educators must decide what and how to teach. Even when given mandated curricula, health educators sometimes find ways to repurpose health education for their students. Yet we do not fully understand what circumstances or characteristics allow for such action or how health educators negotiate gaps between curricula and what they believe their students need. Further, health educators are not a homogenous group. While some are full-time, certified health educators who teach in a variety of settings, others are school teachers who teach health education as one part of their job. Scant research describes health education from health educator perspective or compares the experiences of community and teacher health educators in schools. This study will provide needed evidence to address these gaps. Findings from this project will inform professional organizations that train and support health educators, thus promoting efforts to improve the quality and delivery of health education. This qualitative study will generate interview data from 50 school-based health educators, comprised of 25 community health educators and 25 teacher health educators. The project will recruit participants from health education conferences, professional directories, community health organizations, schools, and professional teacher associations. The interviews will describe teaching school-based health education from the perspective of health educators, particularly their experiences with challenges and opportunities. The project will assess how health educator experiences are shaped by employment context, comparing community and teacher health educators to identify how differences in training, employment, and years of experience structure these roles. The project will also consider how health educator personal characteristics, such as race, social class, gender, and age, and structural contexts such as geographical location and school characteristics, such as school size, shape their classroom experiences. The analysis will proceed in two phases. First, the project will code each interview line-by-line, noting any instances of new ideas, orientations, or experiences, and allowing the data to guide which themes emerge. Second, the project will engage in a close analysis of the relationship between the data and theory. The project will review and study the codes from the first phase to determine similarities and differences, reveal patterns that are defining features of the interviews, and identify instances that diverge from the expected themes or initial findings. Findings will inform sociological theories regarding professionalization and professional autonomy, particularly in the key context of education. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.