Category:

Understanding Teachers: From the Teaching & Teacher Education Journal

1/17/2022

ISHN has gathered knowledge about Understanding Educators: Backgrounds, Beliefs, Work Lives & Concerns as part of better efforts to integrate health and social programs within education systems. Several articles in Volume 109, 2022 of Teaching and Teacher Education provide much to add to our understanding. Teacher beliefs, concerns, working conditions, career patterns as well as different aspects of teacher education and development are discussed in the articles. If we are to work more effectively with teachers, we must better understand these things.
Go to the journal issue.

Building Teacher Teams within Constraints of Time, Professional Norms

7/23/2019

The unique challenges related to building teams of teachers (and others) to improve programs and school practices has been discussed in educational research but less in health and social development. There is very little planning time in the teacher's work day, the regular working environment (the classroom) is isolated from other adults, teacher backgrounds are often derived solely from their previous experiences as students and their relatively low professional status makes other prone and willing to "fix the teachers" as their primary strategy.This is why the July 2019 issue of Educational Leadership should be of interest to school health & development advocates. The issue examines the barriers to teacher teams, "collective efficacy" as a driving concept, ensuring that team meetings work for teachers and treating teachers like professionals. Read more.....

The US Education Act Creates Opportunities to Improve Health

10/2/2017

A health impact study done in the United States shows that The Every Student Succeeds Act Creates Opportunities to Improve Health and Education at Low-Performing Schools. In the health sector, health impact studies of different policies and laws in an increasing practice. This study shows that the new education act in the US, by making it easier to implement a healthy schools approach, would benefit student learning in schools in disadvantaged communities. "Studies consistently show a strong correlation between educational level and health over a lifetime, even after controlling for demographic characteristics such as income. Those with more education live longer and have a lower risk of chronic diseases, such as diabetes. However, about 1 in 6 U.S. public schools—more than 16,000—did not meet state standards for student achievement in the 2014-15 school year. The Health Impact Project, a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts, conducted a health impact assessment (HIA) of how needs assessments and improvement plan strategies, including expanded family and community involvement, might affect achievement and related health outcomes across diverse student populations.he research reviewed by the HIA team suggests that several steps could be taken to improve needs assessments in low-performing schools. These steps are all consistent with approaches such as healthy schools, community schools and safe schools. Read more....
(This item is among the 5-10 highlights posted for ISHN members each week from the ISHN Member information service. Click on the web link to join this service and to support ISHN)

CDC Releases New Data on Connection between Student Health & Academics

10/2/2017

Data from the 2015 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) show that students with higher grades are less likely than their peers with lower grades to participate in certain risk behaviors. Compared to students with lower grades (mostly D’s/F’s), students with higher grades (mostly A’s) are; Less likely to be currently sexually active, Less likely to drink alcohol before the age of 13 and Less likely to have ever used marijuana. While these results do not prove a causal link between academics and health, these associations are important because they confirm that across nearly all 30 health risk behaviors examined, students who reported engaging in unhealthy behaviors struggle academically. ISHN Comment: The caution in the report stating that higher grades and healthier behaviours is a correlation is a good one. A more convincing argument has been presented in the recent New Zealand study which shows that better academic scores are correlated with schools that have introduced a health promoting approach. Read more...
(This item is among the 5-10 highlights posted for ISHN members each week from the ISHN Member information service. Click on the web link to join this service and to support ISHN)

Healthy Schools in New Zealand Report Clear Educational Benefits

10/2/2017

An analysis of Health Promoting Schools program in New Zealand shows clear educational benefits. According to a new release from the NZ government, "Independent analysis has found that the Health Promoting Schools service is having a hugely positive impact on student outcomes, Health Minister Jonathan Coleman says.Key findings in the analysis released today include that students in Health Promoting Schools have 29 per cent better reading performance, 60 per cent increased attendance and 42 per cent fewer stand-downs and or suspensions when compared to schools not participating." The full report notes that "To model the impact of the HPS approach on these outcome variables, the following indicators were used: HPS facilitator performance, HPS health and wellbeing rubric performance, degree of school involvement in the HPS service, school engagement and relationship with whānau, Educational Review Office (ERO) cycle category, and school decile." Using various multivariate modelling techniques, data was analysed and tested in relation to its structure (Structural Equation Modelling: SEM) Read More
(This item is among the 5-10 highlights posted for ISHN members each week from the ISHN Member information service. Click on the web link to join this service and to support ISHN)

Promoting Student Autonomy in Health Ed & PE? Yes and No

8/30/2017

An insightful article in Issue #7, 2017 of Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance offers some insights into the dilemmas related to health education and physical education. It suggests that teaching to promote student autonomy is a better way to motivate students to be physically active over the life course. The argument for teaching methods that promote student autonomy in PE is a good one, offering both a underlying behavioural theory (Self-Determination) and several practical strategies for interactions with students. The paper also discusses the dilemmas often faced by teachers as they need to control their students to create an orderly learning environment while still encouraging student autonomy. My only hesitation about the article rests with the underlying assumption that HE and PE teachers should be accepting responsibility for the behaviours of their students over the rest of their lives. We do not hold language arts teachers responsible for their students life-long reading habits, only that they can read adequately when they graduate. yes, teaching strategies and methods must consider student motivations and attitudes/values/beliefs and these can be measured and monitored as realistic outputs for instructional programs. But, no, schools should not be held accountable for the many, many other factors in society and in our lives that cause us to establish our life-long habits and preferences. Read more...
(This item is among the 5-10 highlights posted for ISHN members each week from the ISHN Member information service. Click on the web link to join this service and to support ISHN)

Single Issue Advocacy to Coalitions for Health: Politics & Potential

10/21/2016

A commentary in Volume 165, 2016 of Social Science & Medicine discusses how disease focused advoacy movements in the US could become a united force for greater, holistic investments in health and health care. This " critical review of recent literature on U.S. social movements concerned with matters of health and illness prompts reconsideration of the prevailing conception of such movements as necessarily isolated and particularistic. With a focus on disease-constituency-based mobilization—presently the most potent model of efficacious activism to be found in the domain of health and illness in the United States—I argue that such activism may tend in two directions: a specific response to an imminent disease threat, and a bridging of collective action frames and identities that can lead to connections across differences and broader mobilization. Through close analysis of patient group mobilization and its distinctive orientation toward knowledge and expertise, I argue that patient groups in practice may connect with or influence one another or a range of other forms of mobilization in relation to health, and I examine the “linkage mechanisms”—spillover, coalition, and frame amplification—by which this can occur. Rather than imagine a stark opposition between particularistic, single-issue health politics, on the one hand, and universalistic efforts to transform the meaning and practice of health and health care in the United States, on the other, I propose closer attention to the potentially Janus-faced character of many health movement organizations and the ways in which they may look either inward or outward." . In school health and development, we have seen the same potential, as long as we all face outward and recognize each other's legitimacy and concerns. Read more >>(This item is among the 5-10 highlights posted for ISHN members each week from the ISHN Member information service. Click on the web link to join this service and to support ISHN)

School Psychology in Canadian Provinces: Need to Integrate Within Education Systems

10/21/2016

The articles in Issue #3, 2016 of Canadian Journal of School Psychology present a provincial/territorial snapshot of the practice of school psychology across Canada. The introduction notes that "Some provinces also report on the rise of a decentralized clinical administration where the provision of public sector health and social welfare services are increasingly linked to the education system, by recognizing that children are best served in their natural environments. Fundamentally, bridging the gap between “Education” and “Health” is an emerging theme in the present issue given that it represents the most challenging barrier to the implementation of prevention and early intervention programs. The “Global School Health Statement,” (a global dialogue promoted by ASCD, EI and ISHN) which for all intent and purposes, aims for the Integration of Health and Education and recognizes that schools have always “played an important role in promoting the health, safety, welfare, and social development of children.” Similarly, as suggested by Louise Bradley, the Mental Health Commission of Canada CEO, “in order to give today’s young people the best chance, we need to build a bridge—a bridge supported by an integrated, accessible and responsive system.” To date, there is little comprehensive mapping available in Canada of the amount of resources required for the implementation of mental health service provision in schools or of how they should be expended. Efforts to advance mental health in schools have been hampered by the existing gap between Health and Education. As such, by adhering to the “Global School Health Statement” guiding frameworks, school psychologists now seek to find innovative means to integrate health and social programs, which includes mental health, within the education system." Read more >> (This item is among the 5-10 highlights posted for ISHN members each week from the ISHN Member information service. Click on the web link to join this service and to support ISHN)

Emotional Demands and Strategies Make a Difference in Teacher Stress

10/11/2016

Teaching has been recognized as a high stress job but few studies have examined the causes and potential solutions. An article in September 2016 Issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health uses " an adjusted Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model that considers the mediation of personal resources. the study examined the relationships between two characteristics of the work environment (emotional job demands and trust in colleagues) and two indicators of teachers’ well-being (teaching satisfaction and emotional exhaustion). In particular, the study focused on how emotion regulation strategies (i.e., reappraisal and suppression) mediate these relationships. The results of structural equation modeling indicated that: (1) the emotional job demands of teaching were detrimental to teacher well-being, whereas trust in colleagues was beneficial; (2) both emotion regulation strategies mediated the relationships between both emotional job demands and trust in colleagues and teacher well-being; and (3) teachers who tend to use more reappraisal may be psychologically healthier than those tend to adopt more suppression." The authors conclude that "that teachers should be seen as emotional workers, who need to be highly sensitive to the demands that their work makes on their emotions and well-being [61]. Given the high mean score of emotional job demands reported in this study, further attention should be paid to the adverse effects of the emotional demands faced by teachers." As well, they argue that "trust in colleagues is positively related to teaching satisfaction and less emotional exhaustion via the indirect effect of, respectively, reappraisal or suppression." Other studies of the work lives of teachers report that teaching is a lonely occupation and that it is difficult for teachers to work closely with colleagues due to lack of planning time in their work day. Read more >> (This item is among the 5-10 highlights posted for ISHN members each week from the ISHN Member information service. Click on the web link to join this service and to support ISHN)

How Education for Sustainable Development Contributes to High Quality Education & Learning

10/11/2016

An article in the special September 2016 issue of the Journal for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) describes how ESD learning contributes to a higher quality of education and learning for students. "This research is a synthesis of studies carried out in 18 countries to identify contributions of education for sustainable development (ESD) to quality education. he analysis revealed that major themes repeated across the 18 studies, showing that ESD contributes in many ways to quality education in primary and secondary schools. Teaching and learning transforms in all contexts when the curriculum includes sustainability content, and ESD pedagogies promote the learning of skills, perspectives and values necessary to foster sustainable societies. " The article also identified the need for better work in integrating ESD across the curriculum and in training teachers. Read more>> (This item is among the 5-10 highlights posted for ISHN members each week from the ISHN Member information service. Click on the web link to join this service and to support ISHN)

US School Counselors Attitudes Towards Social Justice

8/1/2016

Our discussions of the integration of health & social programs have identified the importance of teacher beliefs and attitudes. This includes school staff such as counselors. An article in Issue #1, 2015-16 Issue of Professional School Counseling reports on a study of the attitudes and beliefs of US counselors in regards to social justice issues. "Results showed alignment between school counselors' self-endorsement of social justice advocacy and scores on the Advocacy Competencies Self-Assessment. School counselors working in recognized comprehensive programs, including Recognized ASCA Model Programs and Indiana Gold Star, scored higher on social justice advocacy measures than those in non-recognized programs." These results may not be surprising but one can wonder about the relative importance assigned to counselor attitudes and practices towards academic excellence, a goal that often requires educators to help student adjust to failure and challenges in school. Read more>>
(This item is among the 5-10 highlights posted for ISHN members each week from the ISHN Member information service. Click on the web link to join this service and to support ISHN)

Aligning Multi-Intervention Programs: Comprehensive Counseling & Positive Behavior Support (PBS)

8/1/2016

The alignment and cooperation between the various multi-intervention programs that can be delivered in schools is essential. An article in Issue #1, 2015-16 Issue of Professional School Counseling describes how two such MIP's, Comprehensive Guidance Counseling and Positive Behavior Supports (PBS) can be accomplished. "In this article, the authors conceptualize this alignment, aiming to increase school counselors' and stakeholders' understanding of and advocacy for this alignment to maximize school counselors' efforts. The article provides school counseling implications and recommendations." These two multi-intervention programs can then be integrated within larger, broader multi-component approaches (MCA's) such as healthy schools or safe schools. Read more>>
(This item is among the 5-10 highlights posted for ISHN members each week from the ISHN Member information service. Click on the web link to join this service and to support ISHN)

US Teachers Support Actions to Prevent Bullying based on Obesity

8/1/2016

An article in the July 2016 Issue of Journal of School Health reported on a survey of 240 teachers and found that Forty-eight percent of participants observed weight-related bullying in their school and 99% expressed the importance of intervening in such incidents. A large majority (75%-94%) supported 8 of the 11 policies, especially actions requiring school-based health curriculum to include content on eating disorder prevention (94%), and addressing weight-bullying through anti-bullying policies (92%), staff training (89%), and school curriculum (89%). Strongly supported policies were viewed by participants as being the most impactful and feasible to implement. Read more>>
(This item is among the 5-10 highlights posted for ISHN members each week from the ISHN Member information service. Click on the web link to join this service and to support ISHN)

Teachers & Student Retaliation/Self-Defense in Israeli Schools

11/2/2015

Israeli schools expressly forbid a student to hit back after being attacked. In a context in which violence and retaliation are magnified, this rule is likely consistent with the local circumstances.An article in Issue #4, 2015 of Journal of School Violence explores Israeli teacher attitudes towards this task of enforcing fair rules & punishment, a task which is challenging enough in all circumstances. "In semistructured interviews,71 Israeli educators were asked for their views on the hitting-back tactic. The interviews compared their attitude toward hitting back as teachers with their take on the matter as parents. The results, analyzed using grounded theory, show that most educators would not object if their children hit back in self-defense when attacked but would discipline students who hit back unless they can prove their claim of self-defense. Interviewees are much less inclined to discipline retaliators who do manage to prove self-defense but feel that investigations to verify self-defense under school conditions are impractical. To deter bullies, they say, teachers must declare their readiness to discipline everyone involved; otherwise, bullies will falsely claim self-defense. The discussion explores the implications of role theory on teachers’ attitudes." Read more>> (An item from the ISHN Member information service)

More Support but also Challenges for Integrated Student Supports/Services

10/6/2015

A paper released by the Brookings Institute, USA, adds more support for the policy direction of providing integrated student services to drive educational outcomes. "Effective approaches to the problems of struggling neighborhoods—from health to school success and poverty—require the focused use of integrated strategies. Consistent with this, community schools and many charter schools now function as hubs, helping to deliver a range of services beyond education in order to prepare their students to learn and to assist families. These include social services, “two-generation” support, and population health services. There is debate over the potential of schools as hubs and the impact on school achievement. For success, we need to explore how schools can best “integrate backwards.” That requires us consider how schools can function in an interdependent manner with providers of, say, mental health care or social services yet maintain the control needed to customize services to a student’s needs and achieve academic objectives. Despite their considerable potential, schools face many challenges in operating as hubs. These include (1) Sharing student information with other services sectors is often difficult because of privacy rules and interoperability problems. (2) The wider community impact of hub-based services is rarely measured fully or reflected in city or county budgetsSchool leaders need specialized training to coordinate services efficiently. (4) Intermediaries can help schools coordinate services, but turning to outside organizations can alter the focus of a school and the locus of control." Read more>> (An item from the ISHN Member information service)

Expanded Notions of School Accountability for Student Well-being

10/6/2015

There are several initiatives underway around the world that are developing broader, more holistic sets of Indicators of the school's role in promoting academic achievement by also providing in-school conditions, adapted instruction and supports, as well as referrals to other services to support learning and overcome barriers to learning. A recent paper from the UCLA School Mental Health Project is one example of this trend. The rationale is presented succinctly. "School accountability is a policy tool with extraordinary power to reshape schools – for good and for bad. Systems are driven by accountability measures. This is particularly so under “reform” conditions. As everyone involved in school reform knows, the only measure that really counts is achievement test scores. These tests drive school accountability, and what such tests measure has become the be-all and end-all of what is attended to by many decision makers. This produces a growing disconnect between the realities of what it takes to improve academic performance and the direction in which many policy makers and school reformers are leading the public . "As illustrated (in the UCLA framework), there is no intent to deflect from the laser-like focus on meeting high academic standards. Debate will continue about how best to measure academic outcomes, but clearly schools must demonstrate they effectively teach academics. At the same time, policy must acknowledge that schools also are expected to pursue high standards in promoting positive social and personal functioning, including enhancing civility, teaching safe and healthy behavior, and some form of “character education.” Read more>> (An item from the ISHN Member information service)

Integrated Student Supports/Services

10/6/2015

A report on the evidence base supporting the use of integrated student supports (ISS) or services, published by Child Trends in the USA, is a timely find for us this week, as ISHN, ASCD and Education International move into the next phase in our global dialogue on better integration of health and social programs in education systems. (Integrated services for students, especially vulnerable students is one way to secure better integration). The report estimates that "ISS programs serve more than 1.5 million students in nearly 3,000 elementary and high schools across the USA. "while individual programs vary somewhat in the ways they provide integrated student supports, all ISS providers employ common components (needs assessment, integration within schools, community partnerships, coordinated supports, and data tracking); all provide wrap-around supports to improve students’ academic achievement and educational attainment; and all embrace the premise that academic outcomes are a result of both academic and non-academic factors". The Child Trend review of the research found that (1) There is emerging evidence that ISS can contribute to student academic progress as measured by decreases in grade retention and dropout, and increases in attendance, math achievement, reading and ELA achievement, and overall GPA. (2) ISS, as a student-centered approach, is firmly grounded in the research on child and youth development. (3) ISS programs are also aligned with empirical research on the varied factors that promote educational success. (4) Preliminary studies find a positive return on investment in ISS. Read more>> (An item from the ISHN Member information service)

Documents & Debates at the World Education Forum in Korea

10/6/2015

Since ISHN is active in the global school health level, I have been following the documents and debates that have occurred about the role of education in the new 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. I am usually pretty good at this type of thing but by the time the various documents emerged from the peculiar dance of the UN, I was lost. It turns out I may not be alone. Several articles in Volume 52, 2015 of Network for International Policies and Cooperation in Education and Training reflect on the World Education Forum (WEF) held in August 2015 in Incheon, South Korea. There were three documents in play; a "targets" document describing outputs and indicators; a "'framework for action (FFA) which is essentially a plan and a "declaration" for the WEF Conference to consider. At the end of the WEF, only one of these documents came to the floor for ratification by delegates. In the very last session, delegates were asked if they had any comments on the FFA (no one dared to do so) and the "targets", which have been dealt with in as committee, was folded into the FFA document. In other words, easy consensus and no haggling over targets. If you read through the articles in the special issue of this journal, you can get even more confused but it appears that UNESCO was guiding the process so that these education sector discussions would not get out of step with a parallel set of UN meetings discussing all of the global goals, including education. If you read the articles in this issue, you will also learn that the language of the Incheon Declaration is stronger and more coherent than the "targets" document but it may be, once again in education, come to be that "what is measurable gets measured" and "what is measured ends up being what matters". Read more>> (An item from the ISHN Member information service)

WHO Uses NCD Prevention to Re-Invent Itself

9/30/2015

An article in Issue #3, 2015 of Population and Development Review describes how the World Health Organization (WHO) has used the issue of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD's) as a focus and thereby helped to re-establish its credibility. The authors describe how WHO has used NCD's in an opportunistic manner. "Chronic noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in low- and middle-income countries have recently provoked a surge of public interest. This article examines the policy literature—notably the archives and publications of the World Health Organization (WHO), which has dominated this field—to analyze the emergence and consolidation of this new agenda. Starting with programs to control cardiovascular disease in the 1970s, experts from Eastern and Western Europe had by the late 1980s consolidated a program for the prevention of NCD risk factors at the WHO. NCDs remained a relatively minor concern until the collaboration of World Bank health economists with WHO epidemiologists led to the Global Burden of Disease study that provided an “evidentiary breakthrough” for NCD activism by quantifying the extent of the problem. Soon after, WHO itself, facing severe criticism, underwent major reform. NCD advocacy contributed to revitalizing WHO's normative and coordinative functions. By leading a growing advocacy coalition, within which The Lancet played a key role, WHO established itself as a leading institution in this domain. However, ever-widening concern with NCDs has not yet led to major reallocation of funding in favor of NCD programs in the developing world." This strategy of health organizations jumping onto an emerging issue to secure resources and credibility is not unique to WHO. The question which needs to be answered is what happens when interest/support in that particular issue wanes? Read more >> (An item from the ISHN Member information service)

Should Teachers Be Navigators to Secure Health Services for Students?

9/30/2015

This blog continues to suggest a new approach to school health promotion and social development that does not dump the responsibilities of other professionals on teachers because of scarce resources in those other sectors. An editorial in Issue #3, 2015 of Social Work Research is an example of this trend to always view the teacher as a resource for a function that should be carried out by others. In this case, it is the function of securing mental health services for students, a task that should be assigned to school social workers, school psychologists or school nurses. "...it would be appropriate to discuss another challenge for urban schools, to better serve the unmet behavioral health needs of African American students. Teachers are an untapped resource in addressing the unmet mental health services needs of inner-city African American children. They often have the primary responsibility for identifying mental disorders in children and bridging students with problems to needed services. What are the factors associated with teachers' decisions to refer or not refer African American children for mental health services? What are the relationships between organizational factors, community factors, teachers' knowledge, and teachers' decisions for services referral? And what are the pathways to services for African American children? Increased scholarship investigating these relationships as another variable for interventions to effectively affect services for African American students is very important." There is no debate about the unmet need and even about the teachers role in identifying and refering students. The debate is about asking teachers to walk down the complicated and poorly funded "pathways" to securing the service. Ironically, an article in the same issue explored the use of social workers as such navigators and concluded that they were being under-used. Read more >> (An item from the ISHN Member information service)

Student Testing Not Linked to Economic Growth 1960-2012

9/21/2015

(An item from the ISHN Member information service) With the global community now debating the purposes and aspects of quality education as part of the 2015-30 Social Development Goals development, an article in Issue #3, 2015 of Comparative Education Review makes a timely point about the lack of a connection between increased student testing and subsequent economic growth. "This article considers the growth of the international testing regime. It discusses sources of growth and empirically examines two related sets of issues: (1) the stability of countries’ achievement scores, and (2) the influence of those national scores on subsequent economic development over different time lags. The article suggests that stability over time and across tests has historically been weak but is increasing in the post-1990 era. In addition, the analysis finds little evidence of macro-level effects of test score performance on subsequent economic growth. Read more>>

Integrated Student Services: The UCLA Model

9/4/2015

(An item from the ISHN Member information service) We have been discussing the value of integrating various health, social and other services to support students in this blog. This week we identified three aspects of the approach recommended by the UCLA school mental health program which focuses on removing barriers to student learning. These include: a policy-oriented overview (Transforming Student and Learning Supports: Developing a Unified, Comprehensive, and Equitable System) an analysis of implementation issues (Processes/Lessons Learned in Facilitating Systemic Transformation towards integrated student services) and a model school board policy (Board Policy for a Unified and Comprehensive System of Learning Supports/Integrated Services) Go to the weekly report for all three items at: http://www.schoolhealthinsider.org/page/Aug+3-9%2C+2015

PAHO Agrees with Inter-Sectorial Integration to Achieve HiAP

8/27/2015

(An item from the ISHN Member information service) An article in Issue #7, 2015 of The Lancet Global Health, written by the Assistant Director of PAHO, the regional office for WHO in the Americas agrees witb the assertion made in the May 2015 issue of that Journal. (ISHN highlighted that earlier article in our weekly report for May 25-31, 2015. We have reposted that item into this blog here) The earlier article " reports on an interdisciplinary analytical review of the SDG process, in which experts in different SDG areas identified potential interactions through a series of interdisciplinary workshops. This process generated a framework that reveals potential conflicts and synergies between goals, and how their interactions might be governed. We noted that this call for integrated system-based responses underlines the need for the global dialogue that ASCD, Education International and ISHN have stimulated in regards to integrating health and social programs within the education systems. The PAHO article notes that "Greater synergies between health and other sectors could be achieved by framing the SDGs in such a way that their attainment requires policy coherence and shared solutions across multiple sectors; that is a Health-in-All-Policies approach" In essence, the educator led dialogue on school health promotion might be summarized with this slogan; a Health in All Policies approach will require that Health is in (actively, with personnel and funding) in all sectors (HiAS). Read more>>

Achieving Sustainable Development Goals requires Intersectorial Integration

8/27/2015

(An item from the ISHN Member information service) An article in May 2015 Issue of The Lancet Global Health underlines the need and huge challenges in aligning the work on the 17 SD Goals recently adopted by the UN. The article also underlines the need for the global dialogue that ASCD, Education International and ISHN have stimulated in regards to integrating health and social programs within the education systems. The article " reports on an interdisciplinary analytical review of the SDG process, in which experts in different SDG areas identified potential interactions through a series of interdisciplinary workshops. This process generated a framework that reveals potential conflicts and synergies between goals, and how their interactions might be governed. The 17 SDGs are represented in three concentric layers. In the inner layer we find the people-centred goals that aim to deliver individual and collective wellbeing. The wellbeing goals are supported by second-level goals that relate to the production, distribution, and delivery of goods and services including food, energy, clean water, and waste and sanitation services in cities and human settlements (ISHN suggests that equitable and inclusive education systems is better placed here). We call these infrastructure goals to deliver the wellbeing goals and provide a platform for delivering the wellbeing goals. The figure's outer layer contains three natural environment goals; natural resources and public goods in land, ocean, and air, including biodiversity and climate change.In our framework, the middle layer, infrastructure goals, represent a domain for global development goal setting with particularly strong effects on inner-level and outer-level goals. A crucial lack of potential synergies at the level of infrastructure goals is compounded by governance issues at this level. Here decisions are typically taken by powerful elites and technical experts. Read more>>

Global Education is Big Business: Pearson is a Player

8/27/2015

(An item from the ISHN Member information service) We do not often pay attention to the various companies that supply goods and services to educational systems but one item caught our eye this week. Education Week reported that Pearson, a multi-national education company, had sold the business newspaper Financial Times to a Japanese company so that it could focus solely on its global education strategy. The story noted that "To many in the world of K-12, it might seem that Pearson is already just that focused on education. The Wall Street Journal reported that Pearson generates about 60 percent of its sales in North America, and three-quarters of its revenue from education". ISHN has been hearing more and more about the influence that Pearson has been exerting on the UN discussions on education targets in the revised millennium development goals. We obviously need to listen even more. Read more>>