The Health Promoting Schools model. School as a pedagogical setting for generating wellbeing and learning

Abstract

The present paper problematizes and reflects on the health promoting school model in the Italian context, following its successful development throughout Europe. Beginning with Massa’s statement and provocation on prevention activities in school as a sort of alibi for the missing innovation in didactic practices, health promotion boundaries have been traced. Wellbeing and
learning are discussed in three areas: schoolwork and organization, curriculum, and partnership.
The Health Promoting Schools framework is grounded in epistemologies recognized and argued within a pedagogical scholarship. More specifically we refer to the capability approach and to critical pedagogy. The salutogenic model and the whole school approach place themselves in this framework, guided by salutogenic and positive factors which are health promoting in the school setting. Salutogenesis emphasises the positive role of experiential learning and
meaning-making as processes capable of enabling people to recognize and use resources. The action-research for traslating the health promoting school in Italy, developed in the Umbria Region,
will be discussed as a case example to thoroughly investigate strengths and weaknesses of the model. Nowadays, the school system is going through an evolving process. The paper describes how wellness and learning are strictly connected and how taking care of both could become a way of adding quality of life and effectiveness to a successful transformation and innovation of the school system.