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Asia-Pacific Journal of Health, Sport

and Physical Education
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Critical health literacies? Introduction

Tim Corcoran Guest Editor & Kerry Renwick Guest Editor
Published online: 17 Sep 2014.

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To cite this article: Tim Corcoran Guest Editor & Kerry Renwick Guest Editor (2014) Critical health
literacies? Introduction, Asia-Pacific Journal of Health, Sport and Physical Education, 5:3, 197-199,
DOI: 10.1080/18377122.2014.940807
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Asia-Pacific Journal of Health, Sport and Physical Education, 2014

Vol. 5, No. 3, 197199, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/18377122.2014.940807

EDITORIAL

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Critical health literacies? Introduction

Health literacy is increasingly recognised as a central aspect of health promotion in
schools and in the wider community. The World Health Organisation definition of
health literacy infers the use of cognitive and social skills enabling individuals to
access, understand and utilise information specifically for promoting and maintaining their health (WHO, 1998). Refining the concept, Nutbeam (2000) argued for a
three-level model of health literacy involving functional health literacy, interactive
health literacy and critical health literacy. But what is to be understood as critical
health literacies? And how are these theorised and practiced?
The New London Group criticised traditional literacy pedagogy arguing that
such work is narrowly defined and concerned with formalised, monolingual,
monoculture, and rule-governed forms of language (1996, p. 61). Predominant
definitions of health literacy, such as this from the American Medical Association,
reflect a similar functional approach: (T)he ability to perform basic reading and
numerical tasks required to function in the health care environment (1999, p. 553).
Teachers face serious challenges within contemporary classrooms as they attempt to
connect with students in meaningful ways so as to develop a constituency of the
future, our future citizenry (Green, 1999, p. 37). To do so, educators are moving
away from teaching and learning literacy as a linear and purely functional process.
Today, literacy needs to be reconceived as a plurality of literacies schools are
[increasingly] called on to foster the development of these changing multiple
literacies (Unsworth, 2001, p. 8). Such pluralities enable the identification of
multiple literacies and accordingly involve a range of purported capacities including
visual literacies, curriculum literacies, cyberliteracies and critical literacies (including
critical health literacies).
Supporting student learning is fundamental in contemporary educational practice
and contributes to the development of robust knowledge economies. However,
institutional attention aimed at the development of predetermined skills seems to
dominate the curriculum at the expense of socially critical understandings and
expertise (Green, 1999, p. 44). In this special issue, a range of perspectives is offered
examining the development of literacies as a framework for health-related learning
as situated social practice.
Renwicks paper calls into view what she calls health education praxis and the
possibilities this kind of work harbours for developing critical health literacies. The
health classroom becomes a space for using critical health literacies as both a
personal and social attribute and as health pedagogy. Within the exploration of
contemporary health promotion messages and programmes, there is consideration of
their value and impact on young people together with understandings about how
health is developed socially and inequitably. Mobilised by teachers and students
through reflection and action, personal and collective critical health literacies have
the potential to transform lives and empower communities.
2014 Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation

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Editorial

McCuaig, Carroll and MacDonald report on a curriculum project that involved

the development of a high school critical health literacy unit. They maintain that
adolescents are interested in finding out more about health but often are challenged
by the messages they encounter. Developing critically health literacies is therefore
important as improvements in this regard support young people being able to make
informed health decisions. The project took place in a period preceding the rollout of
the new Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education (HPE) and sought
response from teachers and students. The study explored the potentials of online
engagement for health literacy and promotion concluding that the internet remains
an underused resource in HPE curriculum and pedagogy.
How do practices of the body relate to health literacies? This question is central
to Wrench and Garretts discussion. They acknowledge how individualistic responsibility for health and the body dominates conceptual work in health education and
that this approach sits within a risk management approach to managing both current
and future population health. Wrench and Garrett use interview and media excerpts
to explore pedagogic practices thereby disrupting common-sense readings and
understandings of bodies. The analytic frame of the paper takes on linguistic, visual
and gestural modes of meaning-making in producing a multi-literacies approach to
health literacies.
The Begoray, Banister, Wharf Higgins and Wilmot paper looks to synthesise
ideas from critical health and critical media literacy. This is positioned within
understandings about how commercial media transmit information widely, particularly to adolescents who are readily connected. In their discussion, they present
research based on two case studies. The first involves middle school students creating
multimedia presentations to critically consider how gender is potentially conveyed
when communicating about health. The second study involved similarly aged
Aboriginal students creating a graphic novel to explore popular media representations of adolescent health. Both studies showcase the potential of critical health
literacies when used to empower young people to consider multiple perspectives in
the creation of personal and collective meaning.
The absence of people with intellectual disabilities (IDs) from studies focussed on
critical health literacy is accentuated in the paper provided by Chinn. She argues that
because of this circumstance, people with ID are often not provided with
opportunities to develop more critical ways of engaging health information. Chinn
provides two case studies to highlight the inclusion of people with ID to challenge
normative notions related to health information and social practices. Both case
studies use similar points to highlight the importance of critical health literacy. The
first sees critical health literacies as having potential to disrupt notions of health as a
common or universal experience. The second identifies critical health literacies as
building opportunity and capacity thereby challenging normative positions to
instigate social and environmental health actions.
Corcoran questions the input dominant psychological theory has made to
developments in critical health literacies. As he points out, with its predilection for
reductionist and individualist models, current theory does little to match the
heterogeneous nature of critical health literacies. Instead, he provides an overview
of three forms of critical psychology, health, educational and community, each
presenting greater opportunity to sustain practices supporting critical health
literacies. The paper challenges us to acknowledge human being as a dynamic

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Editorial

199

confluence involving social relationships and biological processes and that our
ontological understanding influences the kind of epistemological positioning used in
researching critical health literacy.
The majority of papers collected for this special issue were originally part of
symposium delivered at the 43rd Australian Association of Research in Education
International conference in Adelaide, South Australia, December 2013. As co-editors
we want to sincerely thank each author for his/her contribution. We also want to
thank the reviewers for their insightful and constructive feedback on earlier drafts of
each paper. Finally, our thanks to editor Chris Hickey and the production office at
the Asia-Pacific Journal of Health, Sport and Physical Education for allowing us the
opportunity to bring, what we feel is a compelling, inspiring and continuing
discussion, to the readership of the journal.
The 29th ACHPER International Conference: Values Into Action A Brighter
Future will be held in Adelaide from Monday April 13 Wednesday April 15, 2015.
Visit the conference website at www.achper2015.com for the call for abstracts and
presentations, program and registration information.
The edited book of peer reviewed papers for the past three ACHPER International Conferences are available at http://www.achper.org.au/professionallearning/
past-international-conference-proceedings and demonstrate the breadth and quality
of the conference papers and research presented at ACHPER International
Conferences.
References
America Medical Association. (1999). Health literacy: Report of the council of scientific
affairs. Journal of American Medical Association, 281, 552557.
Green, B. (1999). The New Literacy Challenge? Literacy Learning: Secondary Thoughts, 7(1),
3646.
New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard
Educational Review, 66(1), 6093.
Nutbeam, D. (2000). Health Literacy as a public health goal: A challenge for contemporary
health education as communication strategies into the 21st century. Health Promotion
International, 15, 259267. doi:10.1093/heapro/15.3.259
Unsworth, L. (2001). Teaching multiliteracies across the curriculum: Changing contexts of text
and image in classroom practice. Philadelphia, PA: Open University Press.
World Health Organisation. (1998). WHO health promotion glossary. Retrieved from http://
www.who.int/healthpromotion/about/HPG/en/

Tim Corcoran and Kerry Renwick

Guest Editors