Developing health literacy events: a case study of teachers designing health curricula

Objective: In response to the question ‘how can teachers develop health literacy events that leverage students’ cultural and linguistic resources’, this study highlights how two teachers developed a culturally and linguistically responsive curriculum that sought to promote health literacy. Design: The study details findings from a larger partnership between an urban university and a bilingual urban school in the USA. Researchers and teachers conducted a year-long project oriented towards co-designing a curriculum that integrated students’ cultural and linguistic repertoires with health literacy. Over one academic year, teachers planned, implemented, studied and modified curricular units that drew on students’ cultural and linguistic resources related to health. Setting: The study focuses on two Spanish-English bilingual teachers working in a third-grade (8–9 year olds) dual-language classroom in a multilingual urban community in the midwestern USA. Method: Data collected included classroom conversations, teacher-researcher and university researcher conversations, classroom work and teacher-derived analytic documents. Data were coded and analysed to understand how teachers made sense of what happened within specific health literacy events to develop a single descriptive case study. Results: Three events are focused on demonstrating how teachers developed health literacy by building on students’ pre-existing cultural and linguistic resources. Teachers moved from using teacher-centred forms of nutrition education to using student-developed health content that articulated with health concerns in the community. Conclusion: Using a funds of knowledge approach to integrating health literacy into the curriculum, teachers helped students draw on cultural and linguistic resources, building self-confidence, and developing an interest in gathering evidence and presenting health-related findings.