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

美国学校的健康教育很重要，但课程和方法可能因环境而异。当决策者、学校董事会和家长试图对健康教育政策施加影响时，健康教育工作者必须决定教什么和如何教。即使在规定的课程中，卫生教育工作者有时也会找到方法为学生重新调整卫生教育的目的。然而，我们并不完全了解什么样的情况或特点允许这样的行动，或卫生教育工作者如何谈判课程之间的差距，他们认为他们的学生需要。此外，健康教育工作者不是一个同质的群体。虽然有些是全职的，认证的健康教育工作者谁教在各种设置，其他人是学校教师谁教健康教育作为他们的工作的一部分。缺乏从健康教育者的角度描述健康教育的研究，也缺乏对社区健康教育者和学校教师健康教育者的经验进行比较的研究。这项研究将提供必要的证据来弥补这些差距。该项目的调查结果将为培训和支持健康教育工作者的专业组织提供信息，从而促进提高健康教育质量和提供健康教育的努力。本研究将从50名学校健康教育工作者中收集访谈资料，其中包括25名社区健康教育工作者和25名教师健康教育工作者。该项目将从健康教育会议、专业目录、社区卫生组织、学校和专业教师协会招募参与者。访谈将从健康教育工作者的角度描述校本健康教育的教学，特别是他们面临挑战和机遇的经验。该项目将评估健康教育工作者的经验是如何形成就业环境，比较社区和教师健康教育工作者，以确定如何在培训，就业和多年的经验结构这些角色的差异。该项目还将考虑健康教育工作者的个人特征，如种族，社会阶层，性别和年龄，以及结构背景，如地理位置和学校特点，如学校规模，塑造他们的课堂经验。分析将分两个阶段进行。首先，该项目将逐行对每个访谈进行编码，记录任何新想法，方向或经验的实例，并允许数据指导出现的主题。其次，该项目将密切分析数据和理论之间的关系。该项目将审查和研究第一阶段的代码，以确定相似之处和差异，揭示定义访谈特征的模式，并确定与预期主题或初步调查结果不同的实例。 调查结果将告知有关专业化和专业自主权的社会学理论，特别是在教育的关键背景下。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

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.