The enactment of the Australian Curriculum for Health and Physical Education (AC:HPE) is intended to be informed by five ‘propositions’ or Key Ideas, one of which is ‘Develop Health Literacy’. Our study occurred at four Tasmanian primary schools and was conducted by a research team consisting of public health and education academics. This team composition reflects the nature of the HealthLit4Kids program as a university and community grant-funded study intervention. We examined inter-dependent networks, of teachers and children, to investigate Health Literacy (HL) teaching. Data were collected from 30 primary teacher participants and figurational sociology was our theoretical framework. While our program increased teacher awareness about health education, participants demonstrated limited HL knowledge with their teaching largely informed by ‘everyday philosophies’. While increasing health awareness is a welcome first step with the potential to broadly influence students’ adult behaviours, the teachers’ ideas about HL were largely fantastical. This finding was supported by a latent data theme showing a restricted connection between teacher HL knowledge and the AC:HPE.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	health education, health literacy, figurational sociology, teachers, primary school
Research Division:	Education
Research Group:	Education systems
Research Field:	Primary education
Objective Division:	Education and Training
Objective Group:	Learner and learning
Objective Field:	Primary education
UTAS Author:	Cruickshank, V (Dr Vaughan Cruickshank)
UTAS Author:	Nash, R (Dr Rosie Nash)
UTAS Author:	Mainsbridge, C (Mr Casey Mainsbridge)
UTAS Author:	MacDonald, A (Dr Abbey MacDonald)
UTAS Author:	Elmer, S (Associate Professor Shandell Elmer)
ID Code:	149515
Year Published:	2022
Deposited By:	Education
Deposited On:	2022-04-03
Last Modified:	2022-11-24
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