I will conclude by outlining a few issues and challenges for further research emerging from reflecting on the theoretical concepts and the case study presented in the paper.
The health promoting schools approach should involve critical examination of the concept of student participation if it is to truly integrate the principles of democracy, ownership and empowerment. The health promoting schools approach that is informed with the concept of genuine student participation entails a different view on learning and challenges the traditional power imbalances in schools. However, there are no simple, straightforward answers to the question how to ensure genuine student participation in the school context. Health promoting schools, and also the concept of participation, should be seen more as processes of contextual interpretation and negotiation of meanings rather than as outcomes of the implementation of global principles.
Therefore, researchers would do well to work in close collaboration with teachers and students, taking their perspectives on the possibilities and barriers related to participatory teaching and learning at school as a starting point for better understanding of these processes and for improving the realities of practice.
The view on learning inherent to the socio-cultural perspective provides a valuable theoretical framework to reflect on the processes of student participation and the development of their action competence within the democratic health promoting schools approach. The socio-cultural perspective emphasises the social and relational nature of learning and the importance of interaction between cognition, context and practice. Intersubjectivity and participation-in-meaning are core elements of learning through participation, pointing to dialogue and social interaction as the vital constituents of learning processes in the zone of proximal development. However, given the fact that most of the research has been focused on dyadic, child-adult or child-child interactions and so on learning in the ‘individual’ zone of proximal development, more research is needed to expand the concept of the zone of proximal development to school contexts and to explore the possibilities for and barriers to creating class-wide, collective zones of proximal development.
The philosophy of the health promoting schools emphasises the significance of the whole school environment, school ethos and school culture for the processes of learning about health, and thereby provides a good basis for the development and research of new ways of creating communities of learners that allow the
social nature of learning to be expressed. Nevertheless, even if the processes of learning are seen within the context of the whole school setting, the socio-cultural perspective suggests that it is not sufficient to focus on the ways individual students learn. The unit of analysis should be ‘person-and-environment’. This has consequences for both research focus and research methods in the area of the health promoting schools.
It is through genuine student participation that the collective zone of proximal development is created. Genuine participation implies open outcomes and involves individuals-in-context rather than isolated individuals.
Genuine participation is conducive to enhancing students’ empowerment and ownership, which are necessary preconditions for the development of the ability to take action and initiate changes with regard to health. Both peers and teachers play important roles in creating a community of learners. However, the role of the teachers as more experienced partners in the educational dialogue is vital, as it is their responsibility to design learning situations and interactions that are slightly beyond the actual developmental level of students and to support students in the learning process. Support in this case means – to guide, encourage, confront and challenge students as well as to help them overcome barriers. Given the fact that students are not a homogeneous group but differ in their identities, previous experience, motivation, skills and learning styles, the complexity of the role of the teachers is evident. Further research is needed to explore new ways of professional development and teacher support to improve teachers’ competences to work with participatory strategies that encourage student ownership and relational learning and that contribute to the development of action competence.
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Websites
Young Minds (2000-2001) http://www.young-minds.net/ym/top/index.php
See also
Young Minds (2002) http://2002.young-minds.net/
Young Minds (2004) http://2000.young-minds.net/