Reflexivity, health work and the role of teachers: an Australian primary school case study

Schools have long been considered viable sites for producing healthy citizens. However, the degree to which schools and education systems have been held responsible for children’s health and wellbeing has increased exponentially. With the increased importance of children’s health in schools, teachers’ health work has become central through mandated curricula and in broader school life. Given these expectations, it becomes crucial to comprehend how teachers negotiate and undertake such work. To advance our understanding of the health work of teachers, Archer’s theory of reflexivity provided a generative lens to understand the reflexive orientation of teachers and how this shaped the work they undertook with children. Using a case study approach within broader ethnographic methods, we conducted observations and teacher interviews with five primary school teachers in a school to understand the different ways they made decisions in their health work, and how their reflexive identities led to differentiated outcomes. Most of the health work the teachers engaged was influenced by their emergent properties, revealing teachers recognising their roles as health workers and the work this entails, crucial for the health of children. Recognising teachers’ health work suggests potential benefit in professional development to assist teachers in managing this work.