Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Critical Issues in Health Promotion Practice

Course Description

Our health promotion students are challenged by the reality that the world in which they will practice is often unfamiliar with, does not understand, or does not accept the health promotion principles that form the foundation for health promotion practice/research in general, and the Health Promotion Program at the University of Toronto in particular—these foundations are set out in the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion (WHO, 1986) and related international and Canadian documents.

In the context of this course, “critical issues” refers to: (1) Health promotion issues that are at the heart of health promotion practice and research; and (2) Concepts and issues that are most challenging, or remain “unresolved,” in the real world of health promotion practice and research.

Course evaluation will be on a credit/no credit basis.

Course Format:  Weekly course meetings will be run as a seminar, led by faculty and/or students, consisting of:

• Phase I: Identifying critical issues in health promotion;
• Phase II: Exploring identified issues
  • Faculty-led presentations and discussions related to critical issues identified by students and/or faculty;
  • Student led sessions: In the course of these sessions, each student or group will report on their progress, will engage other members of the class in an open dialogue/debate, and will make a final presentation related to their written report.

COURSE objectives

1. The Critical Issues in Health Promotion Practice course is designed to provide a solid basis from which our graduates can launch their careers in a way that is professionally effective and personally satisfying.
2. The course will support students in developing responses to the challenges they will face, where these responses are solidly grounded in an appropriate and persuasive integration of health promotion values, theory, and evidence.
3. The course will provide a platform for identifying and addressing health promotion’s most important “critical issues,” including those that are at the heart of health promotion practice/research, and those that are contested within the health promotion community, and in broader fields related to public health in general.
4. The course will provide a similar platform for a clarification and strengthening of the case for health promotion within the broader health promotion and public health communities.
5. Finally, the course is designed to provide a forum in which students and faculty can openly debate issues; we will experience how contested ideas can be presented, received, and challenged in a “safe,” respectful, and non-damaging way, without reducing the passion and tension associated with strongly held differences of opinion.