Picture this! Using drawings to explore pupils' conceptions of 'health'

IntroductionConcerns have been expressed over what children know, understand and conceive about ‘health’ and calls have been made for further research in this area (Harris et al., 2016). However, exploring pupils’... [ view full abstract ]

Introduction
Concerns have been expressed over what children know, understand and conceive about ‘health’ and calls have been made for further research in this area (Harris et al., 2016). However, exploring pupils’ conceptions can be a challenging endeavour, and there is a need for innovative techniques/tools to be employed when researching the concept of health with children in order to develop understanding and inform pedagogical practice.

Methods
Data were gathered from 120 pupils (aged 11-12) across two case study schools in the East Midlands region of England between October and December 2015. Pupils participated in a semi-structured focus group, involving several interactive tasks, including producing drawings which depicted ‘health’. The interactive tasks sought to generate in-depth discussion and elicit pupils’ conceptions of ‘health’, enabling them to ‘speak’ in alternative ways (i.e. through drawings). Data were subsequently organised within NVivo10 and analysed using discourse analysis.

Results
The data (derived from pupil drawings and related discussions) revealed that many pupils had dichotomous views of health, readily defining ‘healthy’ and ‘unhealthy’ practices. Pupils also had a tendency to conceptualise health in negative terms, with much discussion being about what not to do to be healthy, rather than what to do. Furthermore, pupils demonstrated a preoccupation with the corporeal aspects of health, with almost all describing health predominantly in the physical sense. Allied to this, they often considered diet and exercise to be the sole moderators of health.

Conclusions
Drawings proved to be a useful research tool that pupils responded well to and which facilitated productive discussions, enabling pupils to articulate their conceptions of ‘health’. The findings generated from these drawings (and related discussions) suggest that pupils have rather limited and limiting conceptions of health and the way in which these were articulated (in negative terms) presents challenges for pedagogical practice in this area.