Exploring health for who: discourse analysis of health-related values in upper secondary education

Health education programmes are challenged to account for the plurality of education situations and students' experiences. The paper explores how health-related knowledge and values are constructed within curricula and syllabi of Zimbabwean upper-secondary school and within students' discussions about their health-related education. Through discourse analysis, health-related knowledge and values in curriculum and syllabi documents as well as student discussions from group interviews are analysed. Three discourses are articulated, i) nationalistic ii) biomedical, and iii) holistic. Discourses are shown to co-exist and contradict, creating tensions that shape students' agency. Discourses represent different ways of responding to the question 'health for who?'; the nation, the family, and the individual, with implications for the purpose of health-related education and what content is included and excluded. The paper calls for contextually responsive health education, acknowledging discursive plurality and supporting students' agency to critically reflect, contextually act and navigate diverse health priorities and values.