Educating adolescent students in health and wellness : a review of policies, systems and approaches in the ministries of education and health in Trinidad and Tobago.

In this thesis I examine policies, systems and approaches in the Ministries of Education and Health in Trinidad and Tobago, in the eduation of adolescents for health and wellness. I utilise an interpretive qualitative approach to examine how students age 10 - 15 years are educated on health and wellness in the secondary school system. I begin by looking at the historical influences on the development of education in post emancipation and post-colonial Trinidad and Tobago. However, the context of my research is health and the complex social determinants of health in particular, education and the education system provided for adolescents. I analyse data obtained from education and health policies and other documents produced during the early 1990s to 2000s, and from key informants - educators and health professionals with responsibility for educating adolescents, as well as reflect on my own professional experience as a health educator. My framework for analysis focuses on Foucault's (1969,1972) concept of genealogy and the history of the present; Fairclough's (1995) Critical Discourse Analysis; and social constructivist theories of knowledge to explore how dominant discourses become social practice. However, I also engage in an eclectic approach to explore and explain the complexity of meanings created in relation to adolescents and their health. Findings suggest that the dominant discourse of adolescence is that of a period characterised by deviance and sexual and psychosocial problems. Additionally, that education and health professionals engage in practice based on their individual life experiences that reflect the historical development of education in Trinidad and Tobago. This is demonstrated by their silence on aspects of denominational control over schools that encourage educational inequality according to social class and also the stratification of subjects taught in different secondary schools. My recommendations include a review of past research studies to assist in shaping new research to look at present practice in both the Ministries of Education and Health in educating adolescents in health and wellness. I argue that new research is required in Trinidad and Tobago that begins with the premise that adolescence is a normal stage in the life cycle. I also recommend new approaches between the Ministries of Education and Health that ensure structures and systems supported by a legal framework providing an environment supportive of adolescent health and wellness