Health Promotion 1

Course Description

• Introduction to and history of health promotion; theoretical roots and linkages; social determinants of health; unpacking of the health promotion values, principles, practices and perspectives; special topics
• Lecture/seminar using multiple formats (lectures; class group discussions and exercises, guest speakers, student presentations and assignments)

Course Objectives

1. To understand the socio-historical and political context of health promotion.
2. To recognize key theories and frameworks influencing the field of health promotion while discussing the central role of values in health promotion for developing an explicit ethical stance in which to ground health promotion practice.
3. To critically review the evidence on and context of multiple and intersecting social determinants of health leading to health inequalities, and its implications for policy and practice.
4. To advance understanding about the concept of empowerment, participation and collaboration as central features of health promotion.
5. To review and foster the practice of reflexivity and discuss its contributions to the field of health promotion.
6. To develop a critical understanding of the lifestyle, setting, and anti-oppression/emancipatory approaches to health promotion while exploring new ways to understand these overlapping practices.
7. To foster students’ development as health promotion practitioners through scholastic advancement and skills of critical thinking, problem solving and questioning.
8. To explore the opportunities for (or barriers to) health promotion by developing a health promotion project plan or synthesizing literature in an area of student’s interest or suggested examples.