The views of Finnish parents and teachers about health education content areas of school-aged children
Résumé
Many official documents, provided by a number of countries and organizations (e.g., WHO 1998; US Department of Education 2010), emphasize the importance of both home and school in rearing and educating children. In Finland, the core curriculum of basic education includes cooperation and joint responsibility between home and school also with respect to health (FNBE 2004). However, research has demonstrated that some confusion exists about roles and expectations among teachers and parents, who exhibit diverging goals, demands, values and competencies (Kellaghan 2001; Tveit 2009). Positive findings have also been obtained with a view of shared responsibilities between parents and teachers (Sormunen, Turunen & Tossavainen 2013). This study examines the opinions of parents and teachers on eighteen health education areas of children (e.g., everyday health habits, sexuality and reproduction, or interaction and social relations) in Finland. The study is part of a wider research project between Finland and France, with an aim to find out the stage of health]related collaboration between home and school.
Research questions: 1. How do parents and teachers view their roles in children’s health education content areas? 2. Do parents’ socioeconomic status, teachers’ age or work experience, or schools’ size or location influence on parents and teachers’ views of health education content areas? Methods/methodology: An electronic questionnaire has been sent to fifth] grade pupils’ parents and class grade 1]6 teachers of 52 schools in Finland in the end of January 2015. The participating schools were randomly selected inside five NUTS]classification areas, and categorized to small or big, and urban or rural schools. Descriptive analysis will be carried out to examine the current situation in Finland. To find out the similarities and differences between the responses of parents and teachers, bivariate and multivariate analyses will be executed. The responses will also be examined in relation to school profiles (rural, urban, small, big). Expected outcomes: No national data is available where the responsibility areas related to health has been examined in relation to parents’ socioeconomic background, teachers’ age or work experience, or schools’ size or location (urban, rural). Therefore, the findings are significant and give new information for this phenomenon.