Education and the promotion of health and wellbeing

Theme leader: Dr Ian Warwick

Education and health are often understood as conceptually, politically and professionally separate fields of expertise and practice, yet are experienced as intimately related in people's day-to-day lives.

Good health has a positive influence on people's abilities to gain access to and gain from education - whether they be pupils/students, their parents/carers or educational professionals. Moreover, good education can have a positive effect on people's health and sense of wellbeing. However, ill-health can hinder people from benefitting from education, and poor-quality education can harm people's physical and emotional wellbeing.

These inter-relationships between health and education raise important questions about how international development might work across both fields to promote wellbeing and social justice in low and middle income contexts.

Research projects

• Becoming Adult: conceptions of futures and wellbeing among migrant young people in the UK (ESRC-funded) - Elaine Chase (PI) and Francesca Meloni (with colleagues from the University of Birmingham and University of Oxford).
• More Than Knowledge Transfer? The wider benefits of postgraduate taught programmes for international development (IOE Seed Fund) - Amy North (PI), Chris Yates (PI) Ian Warwick, Rosie Westerveld, Elaine Chase.
• NICK Project (Nutritional Improvement for children in urban Chile and Kenya) (ESRC-funded) - Pat Pridmore (PI), Mary Amuyunzu-Nyamongo, Roy Carr-Hill, Tristan McCowan, Gabriela Charnes.
• Understanding school-related, violence associated with sexual orientation and gender identity expression in challenging contexts: Generating new knowledge for advocacy and programming to support young people's wellbeing (IOE Seed Fund) - Ian Warwick (PI) and Elaine Chase (PI).
• Integrated health, education and environmental intervention to optimise infant feeding practices through schools and Anganwadi networks in India (Global Challenges Research Fund) - Monica Lakhanpaul and Marie Lall (Co-investigators), Priti Parikh with Save the Children, Indian NGOs and community members.
• End Gender Violence in Schools: Addressing School Related Gender Based Violence (SRGBV) to Promote Safe and Supportive Learning environments (Commissioned by UNICEF) - Jenny Parkes (PI), Freya Johnson Ross, Rosie Westerveld, Jo Heslop, Elaine Unterhalter, William Nicholas.
• Stop Violence Against Girls in School in Ghana, Kenya and Mozambique (Big Lottery Fund/Action Aid) - Jenny Parkes (PI), Jo Heslop.
• Understanding how gender norms and material conditions shape sexual agency, gender violence and sexual health in young people - Jo Heslop (PI).