The Inclusion of Health Education Curriculum in Initial Teacher Education: Exploring the Possibilities Moynihan, Sharon and Mannix-McNamara, Patricia Department of Education and Professional Studies, Faculty of Education and Health Sciences, University of Limerick Abstract Teacher education is critical to the successful implementation of health education in schools. This paper reports on the implementation of a pilot module in health education with initial teacher education students, which was offered on an optional basis to Physical Education graduate diploma students, in the University of Limerick, Ireland. Nine students decided to participate. The module was experiential and innovative in design. Pre and post tests were administered to students via questionnaire examining attitude, knowledge and experiences of Social Personal and Health Education. In addition a focus group was held with participants on completion of the module to gain a deeper understanding of their perspectives and experiences. The results indicate that as a result of exposure to health education, students reported increased confidence and interest in teaching SPHE in schools. Therefore, exposure to health education during initial teacher education has great potential as it can promote a positive disposition towards the subject. This paper challenges current provision of Health Education in initial teacher education and calls for a paradigm shift in policy, in this regard. 1. Introduction Schools are recognised as important settings for health promotion (HP) [1,2]. They provide access to a wide audience and give the opportunity to provide health messages early in the lifespan. In so doing it promotes individual health behaviour gain in a sustained manner, thereby, increasing the potential health gain of a nation. Health education has significant influence on people’s decision making, and perceptions of health. Behaviours that have a profound effect on health status, such as physical activity levels and dietary choices are established during the schooling years of many young people [3]. The emphasis of health promotion in schools has moved beyond the traditional health education class and into a more comprehensive settings approach. An effective school health education programme is one that combines health education with other health-promoting initiatives in the school, and involves parents, families and the community [4, 5, 6]. This approach signals a movement away from the health class per se, as the only place of information in relation to health. The World Health Organisation (WHO) have defined a Health Promoting School (HPS) as a school that is “constantly strengthening its capacity to be a healthy setting for living, learning and working by focusing on all the conditions that effect health” [7]. A whole school approach is multi faceted in nature and is advocated to be more effective than classroom only or single intervention approaches in achieving health and educational outcomes [8, 9]. The Irish education system has a specific post primary subject for health education entitled Social Personal and Health Education (SPHE). This subject has been a compulsory addition to the post primary curriculum for over a decade and while teacher in- service training is provided (40 hours professional development), it remains that pre-service teacher training provision is less than optimal. While implementation of the subject indicates policy commitment to health education, to do so with limited teacher education is clearly problematic, especially if a whole school approach is expected from schools. The Department of Education and Skills [10] policy statement clearly articulates that “all teachers are teachers of SPHE”. Yet in many schools engagement is limited to only those teachers who are teaching SPHE. Those who are teacing SPHE are often the only ones nominated to attend SPHE in-service professional development. Therfore, appreciation and knowledge of the subject is not promoted across the whole staff which is incongruent with the policy statement that “all teachers are teachers of SPHE” [10]. Even more problematic is that many teachers continue to teach SPHE without any professional development at all [11]. Given that the majority of teachers have no exposure to this subject in their initial teacher education it is not surprising that they feel inadequately trained [12]. The authors advocate that more teacher education is required for teachers in order to deepen their confidence and skills in the area. In addition Irish teachers’ knowledge of health promoting schools is also significantly limited. Irish policy has recommended implementation of SPHE International Journal for Cross-Disciplinary Subjects in Education (IJCDSE), Volume 5, Issue 1, March 2014 Copyright © 2014, Infonomics Society 1609