Research Center for Health Promotion, Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, P.O.Box 35 (L), 40014, Jyväskylä, Finland.
, The Hague, Netherlands.
BMC Public Health. 2018 Mar 6;18(1):326. doi: 10.1186/s12889-018-5224-0.
Schools are seen as crucial environments to influence and develop the health literacy of new generations, but without sufficient reflection on the ethical underpinnings of intentions and interventions around health literacy. In contrast, we argue here that ethics are fundamental to all education. The article adopts a 'One world' approach that generalizes broadly across the so-called Global North and Global South. It also generalizes across various age groups among school pupils, advocating age appropriate application of the arguments advanced.
Our analysis examines why health literacy should be promoted in schools and argues that the purpose should embrace the values of social justice and should not stop at individual and national cost benefit analysis. Discussion about the orientation of health literacy highlights meta-cognitive skills around critical thinking, self-awareness and citizenship rather than lists of practical skills. Finally, approaches to health literacy in classrooms are presented with an ethical tone that draws attention to the power relations responsible for health inequities and that does not assume that such power relations are the given framework for health literacy interventions and activities. These arguments are reinforced by urging that related debates address dynamic social realities such as international migration.
We reiterate the need for ethical questions to be consciously and systematically addressed from early on, beginning with intentions to promote health literacy even before these intentions are translated into action, within the political space where education meets public health and health promotion. We underline again the context of fluidity and dynamism, as new challenges emerge within pedagogies and curricula, especially in response to changing populations in the society around.
学校被视为影响和培养新一代健康素养的重要环境，但人们对健康素养的意图和干预措施背后的伦理基础缺乏足够的反思。相比之下，我们在这里认为，伦理是所有教育的基础。本文采用“一个世界”的方法，广泛适用于所谓的“北方”和“南方”国家。它也适用于不同年龄组的在校学生，倡导针对不同年龄组学生的应用。
我们的分析探讨了为什么应该在学校推广健康素养，并认为目的应该包含社会正义的价值观，而不仅仅是个人和国家的成本效益分析。关于健康素养定位的讨论强调了元认知技能，包括批判性思维、自我意识和公民意识，而不是实用技能的清单。最后，以一种道德的方式呈现了课堂上的健康素养方法，这引起了人们对导致健康不平等的权力关系的关注，而不是假设这些权力关系是健康素养干预和活动的既定框架。这些观点通过敦促相关辩论来加强，这些辩论需要关注动态的社会现实，如国际移民。
我们重申需要从早期开始有意识地、系统地处理伦理问题，从促进健康素养的意图开始，甚至在这些意图转化为行动之前，在教育与公共卫生和健康促进相遇的政治空间内。我们再次强调了流动性和动态性的背景，因为在教育学和课程中出现了新的挑战，特别是针对社会中不断变化的人口。
