Social Theory and Health Education

Social Theory and Health Education brings together health education scholarship with a diverse range of social theories to demonstrate the value and impact of their application to associated health and education contexts.
For the first time, this book draws together cutting-edge research that demonstrates the productive and impactful ways social theory can be applied to the diversity of research in this field. Topics covered include digital health, health education in sexuality, gender and health, food and nutrition, mental health and wellbeing, environment, and alcohol and drug use. In exploring these topics, each author utilises different theorists and concepts to compellingly demonstrate their application to a range of health education research contexts.
This collection provides examples for both students, early career and established scholars that showcase ways that social theory can be utilised in empirical and theoretical research. The collection also highlights how health education scholarship can be enhanced by engaging with social theory. It also explores the viability of various theories for work in this field, and their potential to generate new approaches for research.

Deana Leahy is a Senior Lecturer in Health Education in the Faculty of Education at Monash University. Her research draws from interdisciplinary perspectives to critically engage with questions related to the politics and practices of health education, in schools and beyond. Katie Fitzpatrick is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Auckland. Her research and teaching are focused on health education and physical education, as well as critical ethnographic and poetic research methods. Jan Wright is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Wollongong. Her research draws on feminist and poststructuralist theory to critically engage issues associated with the relationship between embodiment, culture and health.

List of Figures, Tables and Boxes List of Contributors Chapter 1: Why Do We Need Social Theory in Health Education? Deana Leahy, Katie Fitzpatrick and Jan Wright Chapter 2: Working with Social Theory in Health Education Mary Lou Rasmussen Chapter 3: Biopedagogies and Family Life: A Social Class Perspective Lisette Burrows and Jan Wright Chapter 4: The Ontological Politics of Partying: Drug Education, Young Men and Drug Consumption Adrian Farrugia Chapter 5: Using Bourdieu To Understand Health and Education Katie Fitzpatrick Chapter 6: Poststructuralist and New-Materialist Approaches to Analyses of Bullying Among Children Nina Hein and Dorte Marie Søndergaard Chapter 7: Vital Materialism and The Thing-Power of Lively Digital Data Deborah Lupton Chapter 8: Assembling Affects: A Deleuzo-Guattarian Approach to School Drug Education Peta Malins and Nicholas Kent Chapter 9: Critical Policy Studies and Historical Sociology of Concepts: Wellbeing and Mindfulness in Education Julie Mcleod and Katie Wright Chapter 10: 'School Refusal': What is the Problem Represented to Be? A Critical Analysis Using Carol Bacchi's Questioning Approach Catriona O'Toole and Roisin Devenney Chapter 11: Health Education Policy and Curriculum: Bernsteinian Perspectives and A Whole New Ball Game Dawn Penney Chapter 12: Navigating Health Knowledge: Postcolonialism And Ethnic Minority Girls' Experiences of Health Education in School Contexts Leanne Petherick And Moss E. Norman Chapter 13: Governmentality, School Nutrition and The International Practice of Governing Health Behaviours Darren Powell and Carolyn Pluim Chapter 14: 'Deleuze For Goodness Sake': Examining Health Inequities Via Assemblage Theorising Richard Pringle Chapter 15: Re/Doing Sexuality Education Research as A Rhizomatic Pedagogical Encounter and Its Educational Implications Kathleen Quinlivan Chapter 16: Education as Products and Productions of Norms Eva Reimers Chapter 17: Digital Health Technologies, Body Pedagogies and Material-Discursive Relations of Young People's Learning About Health Emma Rich, Sarah Lewis and Andy Miah Chapter 18: Putting Foucauldian Ethics to Work in Critical Health Education Karen Shelley and Louise Mccuaig Chapter 19: Engaging with Normativity in Health Education Research: Inspiration from Continental Critical Theory Venka Simovska, Nis Langer Primdahl and Anders Skriver Jensen Chapter 20: Destroying the Family and Civilization: Marxism, Safe Schools and Sexuality Education Roz Ward Chapter 21: Beyond Carrot Sticks and Sermons: The Practice of Education in Obesity Interventions Megan Warin Chapter 22: Public Health Pedagogy and Technology as a Mode of Existence Benjamin Williams and Jessica Le