Power & Empowerment in Health Promotion

Balancing the rights and responsibilities of the individual, the community, health promoting agencies and the state is critical in health promotion.  Issues of power, education and empowerment are also of primary importance.  For example, health promotion programmes aimed at behaviour change are often criticised as being individualistic and disempowering.  This module seeks to critically explore such issues.

What does the module cover?

Discover how knowledge is important in power and empowerment and how it impacts on health and health promotion.  Gain an understanding of the potential power dynamics within a range of health promotional activities and their implications in behaviour change.  You’ll have the opportunity to apply your theoretical knowledge to practice by completing a written piece of work on the wider debates of health promotion.

More Information

Module Code:

HS3050

Key topics include:

• Experiential and deep learning vs surface learning
• Theories of Paulo Freire regarding education as stimulus for change
• Theories of Michel Foucault regarding knowledge as power and bio power
• Debates around power and health, power and health promotion
• Implications of an empowering health promotion practice
• Power and empowerment practice in community development and participation
• Power and empowerment among marginalised groups
• Applying theory to practice

Pre-requisites

Level 2 Core Modules

Number of credits & study time

20 credits / 200 hours

Assessment

In addition to completing a number of formative assessments as part of your coursework that you can forward to your tutor, you’ll also need to successfully complete a two summative that will count towards your final grade:

Critical essay (2000 words)     40%
Review (800 word presentation + 2,200 word write-up)  60%