Archives
Is there life in health education after biomedical research? A personal account
Derek Colquhoun
Centre for the Body and Society Faculty of Arts, Deakin University, VIC
Abstract
Research can be both rewarding and frustrating. At a time when academics in universities are being coerced to fall into line with the 'publish or perish' mentality (to use the old cliche!) and when conditions of employment are constantly being eroded at the expense of bureaucratic and administrative exigencies, it is easy to stop persisting with endless cycles and routines of writing grant application after grant application. There are of course many reasons why academics continue to apply for research grants in what are increasingly impossible odds. Quite often the pursuit for knowledge in its own right is marginalised or even forgotten because of the need to be seen to be bringing monies into a school or department, or even, just simply to maintain conditions of work which have been subjected to the administrative and bureaucratic forces of attrition and domination.
In this paper I will attempt to establish that, yes, research in Health Education can be both rewarding and frustrating and that there is life beyond biomedical research. To do this, I will identify, through a personalised account, a dominating discourse in Health Education research - a discourse of positivism which is driving the agendas of most research agencies in the health area and which is frustrating many academics who are disillusioned with positivism and, in particular, biomedicine. After relating some of my experiences with funding agencies, specifically, the National Heart Foundation of Australia, I will outline my own research program which is based on what Giroux (1988) calls 'cultural politic
References
Baric, L. (1990) A new approach to community participation, Journal of the Institute of
Health Education, 28, (2), pp.41-51.
Baum, F. (1992) Researching public health: behind the qualitative-quantitative
methodological debate, unpublished conference presentation, Methodological Issues in
Qualitative Health Research, Deakin University, Geelong.
Bernstein, B. (1986) On pedagogic discourse, In: J. Richardson (Ed) Handbook of Theory
and Research for the Sociology of Education, Greenwood Press: London
Colquhoun, D. (1989a) Emancipatory health education and environmental education: the
new public health, Australian Journal of Environmental Education, September, (5),
pp.1-8
Colquhoun, D. (1989b) Health related fitness and individualism, continuing the debate,
British Journal of Physical Education, 20, (3), pp. 118-122.
Colquhoun, D. (1989c) Images of healthism in health based physical education, In: Kirk,
D. & Tinning, R. (Eds) Physical Education Curriculum and Culture: critical issues in
the contemporary debate, Falmer Press: London.
Colquhoun, D. (1992) Technocratic rationality and the medicalization of physical
education, Physical Education review, 15, (1), pp. 5-12.
Colquhoun, D. & Kellehear, A. (Eds), (1993) Health research in practice: political, ethical
and methodological issues, Chapman and Hall: London.
Colquhoun, D. & Robottom, I. (1990) Health education and environmental education:
toward a shared agenda and a shared discourse, Unicorn, 16, (2), pp.109-118.
Colquhoun, D., Kelly, P. & Stevens, L. (1990) Individualism and school health education:
a case study of alcohol education in a Victorian primary school, Achper National
Journal, 128, pp. 6-8.
Crawford, R. (1978) You are dangerous to your health: the ideology of victim blaming,
Social Policy, Jan/Feb, pp. 11-20
Daly, J. (1993) Team research in clinical settings: strategies for the qualitative researcher,
In: Colquhoun, D. & Kellehear, A. (Eds), Health research in practice, political, ethical
and methodological Issues, Chapman and Hall: London.
Daly, J. & Willis, E. (1990) The social sciences and health research, A report of a
workshop on the contribution of the social sciences to health research, PHA: Sydney.
Giroux, H. (1985) Critical pedagogy, cultural politics and the discourse of experience,
Journal of Education, 167, (2), pp. 22-41.
Giroux, H. (1988) Critical theory and the politics of culture and voice: rethinking the
discourse of educational research. In: Sherman, R.R. & Webb, R.B. (Eds), Qualitative
Research in Education: focus and methods, Falmer Press: London.
Gitlin, A., Siegel, M. & Boru, K. (1989) The politics of method: from leftist ethnography
to educative research, Qualitative Studies in Education, 2, pp. 237-253.
Goodson, I. (1992) School Subjects: Patterns of Stability, Education Research and
Perspectives, 19, (1), pp. 52-64.
Habermas, J. (1971) Theory and Practice, (John Biertel, trans.), Viking: Boston.
Kirk, D. & Colquhoun, D. (1989) Healthism and Physical Education, Brit. J. Soc. Educ.,
10, (4), pp. 417-434.
Kohler Reissman, K. (1983) Women and medicalization: a new perspective, Social Policy,
summer, pp. 3-18.
Lather, P. (1992) Critical frames in educational research: feminist and post-structural
perspectives, Theory into Practice, XXXI, (2), pp.87-99.
Colquhoun, D. (1989a) Emancipatory health education and environmental education: the
new public health, Australian Journal of Environmental Education, September, (5),
pp.1-8
Colquhoun, D. (1989b) Health related fitness and individualism, continuing the debate,
British Journal of Physical Education, 20, (3), pp. 118-122.
Colquhoun, D. (1989c) Images of healthism in health based physical education, In: Kirk,
D. & Tinning, R. (Eds) Physical Education Curriculum and Culture: critical issues in
the contemporary debate, Falmer Press: London.
Colquhoun, D. (1992) Technocratic rationality and the medicalization of physical
education, Physical Education review, 15, (1), pp. 5-12.
Lupton, D., Chapman, S. & Wong, W.L. (1993) Back to complacency: AIDS in the
Australian press, March-September 1990, Health Education Research: Theory and
Practice, 8, (1), pp.5-18.
McLeroy, K. & Tones, K. (1991) Editorial, Health Education Research.: Theory and
Practice, 7, (4). pp. 1-8.
O'Keefe, K. (1992) The History of Health Education in Victoria, Unpublished Honours
Thesis, Deakin University.
Robottom, I. & Colquhoun, D. (1993) Participatory research, environmental health and the
politics of method, Health Education Research: Theory and Practice., 7, (4), pp. 457-
470.
Stevens, L. (1993) Reflexivity: recognising subjectivity in research, In: Colquhoun, D. &
Kellehear, A. (Eds), Health research in practice: political, ethical and methodological
issues, Chapman and Hall: London.
Touraine, A. (1977) The self production of society, University of Chicago Press: Chicago.
Woolgar, S. (Ed) 1988) Knowledge and reflexivity: new frontiers in the sociology of
knowledge, Sage: London.
eContent Home