Justice-oriented Health Education/Promotion Community of Practice

Petition to Create a SOPHE Community of Practice:

Justice-oriented Health Education/Promotion

This survey is to indicate interest in petitioning for a Community of Practice to be created in the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE).

The process of developing a Community of Practice requires (1) identifying two co-chairs for the Community of Practice, (2) describing the Community of Practice's focus, and (3) indicating at least 75 members who are petitioning for the Community of Practice to be created who would indicate the Community of Practice as their primary Community in SOPHE. After these three steps are finalized, the Board of Trustees will consider the petition.

Please read over the Description of the proposed Justice-oriented Health Education/Promotion Community of Practice. If you are in support of this petition, please complete this questionnaire and share it with others in your network who may be interested. Please note, your name and e-mail address will be shared with the SOPHE National Office and Board of Trustees after enough petitioners support the creation of the Community of Practice.

DESCRIPTION

A copy of this document, with supporting information, can be found on this Google Doc.

The field of health education and promotion has borrowed many of our methods, theories, and ethical frameworks from the fields of medicine, public health, education, health policy, and behavioral science. These same fields have caused or stood by as irreparable harm was enacted on communities (e.g., genocide and institutionalization of Indigenous American populations; unethical surgical procedures performed on enslaved Africans; the United States Public Health Service’s syphilis experiment in Tuskegee, Alabama; the stealing of Henrietta Lacks’s immortal cells; coercive oral contraception studies in Puerto Rico; and the Flint, Michigan water crisis). A critical lens applied to these historical and present-day injustices, and their link to health inequities, compels us to look closely at root causes. Using the Theory of Fundamental Causes (Phelan & Link, 2015; Link & Phelan, 1995), it becomes necessary to explicate the role of power structures such as those which lead to ableism, ageism, classism, heteronormativism, racism, and sexism, among other injustices.

The purpose of the Justice-oriented Health Education/Promotion Community of Practice is to promote health equity and social justice by (1) interrogating the role of fundamental causes of health inequities and deleterious social determinants of health, (2) examining the ways that health education/promotion can promote justice to improve society, and (3) promoting justice-oriented (e.g., decolonial and transformative) health education/promotion practice, research, data analysis, and reporting. The paradigms most relevant to this Community of Practice include Dr. Donna Mertens’s transformative paradigm (Mertens, 2012, 2009) - which serves as an umbrella of paradigms, approaches, and worldviews including Critical Race Theory, disability theories, feminist theories, Marxist lens, and queer theories -, and the Applied Decolonial Framework for Health Promotion (Chandanabhumma & Narasimhan, 2020).

The Justice-oriented Health Education/Promotion Community of Practice may be of particular interest to community members, health education/promotion practitioners, students, faculty members, and researchers who:

Affirm that health education/promotion research and practice must decenter the frame of reference from the status quo to the wisdom and lived experiences of marginalized peoples (Chandanabhumma & Narasimhan, 2020), and promote the practice of community and stakeholder engagement.
Believe it is important to identify and critique current paradigms and systems of power (e.g., white supremacy, neoliberalism and global capitalism) that affect health education/promotion practice and research.
Conduct community-engaged research (CEnR), community-engaged participatory research (CBPR), and/or participatory action research (PAR).
Encourage intentional word choice that accurately portrays the role(s) of systems of power and oppression. For example, (1) replacing the phrase “health disparities” with “health inequities,” as the latter signifies the injustice of the differences, and (2) purposefully identifying systems of power (e.g., white supremacy) as root causes.
Seek affirmation that health education/promotion should promote progressive policies and actions to promote justice.
Support the notion that health education/promotion practitioners and researchers must be engaged in anti-oppressive and social justice-oriented practices.
Recognize communities, not individuals, as a primary focal point of health education/promotion practice.
Want to ensure that practitioners, and the field at large, remain accountable to an ethical practice of health promotion.

This Community of Practice invites people engaging in anti-racist, anti-capitalist, and anti-oppressive dialogues and practices, and also warmly welcomes people new to these topics interested in improving their research and practice.

Please provide your contact information.

First Name

Last Name

Credentials (e.g., Ph.D., M.P.H., CHES, MCHES, CPH)

E-mail address

Which of the following best describes you?

SOPHE National member
SOPHE Chapter member
SOPHE National and Chapter member
Not a SOPHE member

Are you interested in a leadership position within this Community of Practice? (For clarification: SOPHE requires at least two co-chairs. It is our intention that the co-chairs will be supported by other leaders and volunteers in the Community of Practice.)

Yes, I would be interested in serving as a co-chair
Yes, I am interested in working with the co-chairs
No
I'm not sure

Do you have any additional comments or feedback for the development of this Community of Practice? This can include (1) recommendations for potential co-chairs, (2) ideas for activities, and/or (3) recommended revisions to the Community of Practice description.