Three case examples in health education and one in literacy illustrate the process of participatory materials development based on Freire's principles. Materials that reflect the people and language of the community can provide a powerful model. (SK)

Critical pedagogy seeks to centralize the cultural experiences of marginalized people in the production of knowledge and cultural identity. This process of engaging teacher/interventionists and students should be central to health education practice. (SK)

Casa en Casa, a popular education project of an Oakland, California, community health clinic, has two key weaknesses: volunteers received little orientation to the role of health promoter, and promoters were given content knowledge without development of the skills needed to use it. (SK)

A graduate program for community health nurses formed a partnership with a neighborhood to enhance community health behavior and teach nurses about community organizing. Major conflicts between community groups proved to be both powerful catalysts and potential barriers to the use of Freire's concepts in community organizing. (SK)

A case study of the use of ethnographic approaches in community organization and development demonstrates their utility in achieving health empowerment among communities of color. The importance of citizen participation in community-based health initiatives is stressed. (SK)

Reviews Guy Steuart's career and major themes of his writing: the nature of health, program development process, and the role of the professional health educator. (SK)

Includes "Importance of Programme Planning"; "Community Health Education"; "Health, Behavior, and Planned Change"; "Planning and Evaluation in Health Education"; "Scientist and Professional: Relations between Research and Action"; "The World Is Not Round: Innovation and the Medical Wheel"; "Social and Cultural Perspectives"; and "Social and…

Pretests and posttests examined how race (white or African American) and social class (health professional or recovered drug user) of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) educators affected level of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) knowledge among low-income African Americans. Those who viewed a customized AIDS slide show significantly…

Health educators must complement individual-level change with communitywide policy and legislative initiatives, focusing on environmental issues such as air pollution, ozone layer depletion, and toxic waste disposal. Recent increases in discomfort and disease related to the physical environment call for immediate action from health professionals…

Researchers assessed the health education and promotion backgrounds, classroom practices, and attitudes about health education of 286 elementary educators. Survey results indicated teachers performed some health instruction and understood student health needs, but most had little formal training in the area and did not attend inservice workshops…

Compares the effects of a Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) education unit in two curricular settings upon secondary school students' knowledge of and attitudes toward HIV prevention behaviors. Findings from experimental groups (n=260) revealed significant improvement of HIV attitudes only in the health education class, and HIV attitude change is…

Discusses the successes and problems in creating major changes in an undergraduate curriculum and addresses the issues of consistency in management, strengthened advising, revision of the majors' handbook, improvement in professional development skills, insufficient content, sequence of skill progression, uniformity in skill teaching, and faculty…

Examines 178 gifted Texas children to determine differences in their health locus of control. Results provide evidence that gifted children, in general, may be less prone to adolescent health-risk behaviors than nongifted children. Findings suggest revision in both school health curricula and instructional practices for gifted children. (GLR)

Provides an overview of fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and outlines a program of primary prevention for FAS. The implications for health educators in a variety of settings are also discussed. (GLR)

Meta-analysis of five studies advocating nutrition education for pregnant women led to recommendations for research: (1) define nutrition education to aid replication; (2) describe the intervention thoroughly; (3) use experimental designs; (4) collect follow-up data; and (5) describe baseline demographic, behavioral, and health characteristics of…