Health education in Christian faith-based primary schools: a scoping study

Abstract

Few would argue against health education’s (HE) role in optimising student wellbeing. HE can refer to health-directed curricula or non-curriculum wellbeing programs and practices, including spiritual health. This scoping review aimed to explore HE in Christian faith-based primary schools (CFBPS), which typically encourage holistic learning. Seventeen articles were examined to identify (a) How HE is positioned to support student health and wellbeing and (b) What praxes are included in HE to assist student wellbeing in Christian faith-based primary schools? Findings highlighted the research gaps, the dearth of literature and collated the article proposals to promote HE and wellbeing in CFBPS. These proposals, or ‘Five As of HE in CFBPS’, include ‘adopting’ whole school approaches to prioritise HE and wellbeing practices, ‘asking’ participants’ perspectives when planning programs, ‘applying’ the researched tools, ‘assisting’ with professional development or training and ‘associating’ HE and faith connections more overtly for student understanding.