Health education policy and curriculum: Bernsteinian perspectives and a whole new ball game
Abstract
This chapter focuses on the work of Basil Bernstein and Stephen Ball and the ways in which concepts that they have presented can be productively combined in health education research. Bernstein’s conceptualisation of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment as interrelated message systems of schooling, the concepts of classification and framing, and fields associated with the production, recontextualisation and reproduction of knowledge, are explained. Ball’s conceptualisation of policy as a dynamic process, involving actors and complex networks, locates health education professionals as significant players in policy and knowledge networks and relations. Research examining the Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education illustrates the probing questions that Bernstein’s and Ball’s concepts generate about what is recognised, legitimated, reproduced and able to be pursued in practice as health education curriculum and knowledge. Discussion focuses on the insights that the analyses offer for health education researchers and professionals.
RAS ID
35698
Document Type
Book Chapter
Date of Publication
2020
School
School of Education
Copyright
subscription content
Publisher
Routledge, Taylor & Francis
Comments
Penney, D. (2020). Health education policy and curriculum: Bernsteinian perspectives and a whole new Ball game. In D. Leahy, K. Fitzpatrick & J. Wright (Eds.), Social theory and health education: Forging new insights in research (pp. 114-125). Routledge, Taylor & Francis. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781351048163-11/health-education-policy-curriculum-dawn-penney