Teacher readiness for health promotion: A survey of Australian pre-service teachers’ knowledge, attitudes and skills

Whole-school approaches to health promotion such as Health-promoting Schools (HPS) recognise the importance of health and wellbeing for student learning and educational outcomes, as well as schools as settings that support health and wellbeing. A myriad of teacher actions contribute to student health and wellbeing including creating positive social-emotional environments, modelling healthy behaviours, identifying concerning behaviours, and encouraging students and their families to access health services. In the absence of research on teacher trainees, we set out to explore pre-service teachers’ knowledge, skills and attitudes towards whole-school approaches to health and wellbeing by inviting students enrolled in postgraduate education training at an Australian university to complete an online survey which was designed to measure knowledge, skills and attitudes about HPS. Responses were obtained from 178 participants (20% response rate). Participants were relatively knowledgeable about HPS but less aware of the requirements to implement and sustain whole-school approaches. While participants generally agreed that teachers’ actions are important in promoting the health of school communities, this was not universally supported. During placements, participants reported high rates of engaging in health-related activities but had differing understanding of their roles in supporting student health and wellbeing. In conclusion, while participants had reasonable theoretical knowledge about whole-school approaches for promoting health, they were less confident about their skills to apply this to teaching practice. Many expressed the need for more practical experiences beyond coursework and others wanted more explicit focus on health promotion in their studies, suggesting greater focus on health promotion is warranted in pre-service and early teacher education.