Enacting critical health literacy in the Australian secondary school curriculum: the possibilities posed by e-health

The teaching of health literacy in school-based health education (SBHE) is of international interest, yet there is less ready access to how conceptions of health literacy can be operationalised in school programmes. More specifically, while articulated in curriculum documents such as the incoming Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education, there are few accounts of planning, implementing and evaluating units with critical health literacy aims that can inform curriculum reform. This paper introduces and evaluates a health literacy unit implemented in three Australian secondary schools. It demonstrates the capacity of schools to undertake critical health literacy teaching and learning that is valued by the students as relevant, engaging and contemporary, particularly when the pedagogies intersect with e-health.