Prevalence and characteristics of advocacy curricula in Australian public health degrees

Bhatti, Alexandra J., Lin, Sophia, Post, Dannielle, Baldock, Katherine, and Dawes, Nathan (2022) Prevalence and characteristics of advocacy curricula in Australian public health degrees. Health Promotion Journal of Australia, 33 (S1). pp. 50-56.

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Abstract

Background: Public health advocacy is a fundamental part of health promotion practice. Advocacy efforts can lead to healthier public policies and positive impacts on society. Public health educators are responsible for equipping graduates with cross-cutting advocacy competencies to address current and future public health challenges.

Problem: Knowledge of the extent to which students are taught public health advocacy is limited. To determine whether advocacy teaching within public health degrees matches industry needs, knowledge of pedagogical approaches to advocacy curricula is required. This study sought to understand the extent to which advocacy is taught and assessed within Australian public health degrees.

Methodology: Australian public health Bachelor's and Master's degrees were identified using the CRICOS database. Open-source online unit guides were reviewed to determine where and how advocacy was included within core and elective units (in title, unit description or learning outcomes). Degree directors and convenors of identified units were surveyed to further garner information about advocacy in the curriculum.

Results: Of 65 identified degrees, 17 of 26 (65%) undergraduate degrees and 24 of 39 (62%) postgraduate degrees included advocacy within the core curriculum, while 6 of 26 (23%) undergraduate and 8 of 39 (21%) postgraduate offered no advocacy curriculum.

Implications: Australian and international public health competency frameworks indicate advocacy curriculum should be included in all degrees. This research suggests advocacy competencies are not ubiquitous within Australian public health curricula. The findings support the need to advance public health advocacy teaching efforts further.

Item ID: 75641
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 2201-1617
Keywords: advocacy, health promotion, postgraduate education in public health, public health education, public health workforce, undergraduate education in public health
Copyright Information: © 2022 The Authors. Health Promotion Journal of Australia published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Australian Health Promotion Association. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
Date Deposited: 03 Aug 2022 07:49
FoR Codes: 42 HEALTH SCIENCES > 4206 Public health > 420603 Health promotion @ 100%
SEO Codes: 20 HEALTH > 2004 Public health (excl. specific population health) > 200499 Public health (excl. specific population health) not elsewhere classified @ 100%
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