Diabetes Literacy: a partnership approach
Stephen Black
Head teacher
Adult basic education
TAFE NSW - North Sydney Institute
Meadowbank Campus
For the past year and a half Stephen Black has been working on an Innovative adult literacy project, funded by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), as part of his role as Head Teacher at Meadowbank TAFE. The partnership involved educating culturally and linguistically diverse people about the risks and prevention of type 2 diabetes. Through this context adult literacy skills were also developed.
The project was very successful. The very readable and interesting project report has been published and is now available. The report was received favourably from Marie Persson, Deputy Director-General, TAFE and Community Education who commented that it " … reflects a significant body of work. I commend the innovative features of the project including the potential for cultural and policy change resulting from a viable intervention model"
Q: What motivated you to push for the project?
A: I have been involved in research for a long time. I have a PhD in Adult Literacy studies and for many years have had a deep interest in adult literacy as part of my work as Head Teacher of Adult Basic Education. Because of my interest I've remained aware of national and international trends and policies. I became very interested in cross-sectoral work involving moving beyond institutional boundaries to the development of partnerships with other sectors.
Q: Why the health sector?
A: The health sector is ideally suited to adult literacy partnerships, however I knew little had been done in this area. So I contacted the local area health service , and we developed the groundwork to put in a submission for funding under the Innovative Adult Literacy funds through the DEEWR. It took some effort to contact the right people - you need to find someone you can work with, and build a relationship with. The first time around we didn't get funding, but we used that process to get feedback and better target our next submission the following year.
The next time around we focused our submission on type 2 diabetes as a health issue. Diabetes 2 poses an enormous current health threat in Australia. It is more prevalent in some groups with low literacy levels, such as some overseas and mainly non- English speaking background populations and especially those of lower socio-economic status.
As a result of the focus on type 2 diabetes, we also brought Diabetes Australia NSW in on the partnership. So the final project ended up being a three-way project, involving the Area Health Service, Diabetes Australia NSW and TAFE NSW. TAFE NSW managed the project.
Q: What was the project?
A: We ran six 'diabetes literacy' programs in different local community sites in the Northern Sydney region. We delivered each program jointly over a seven-week period (at 2 hours/week) by an adult literacy teacher and a qualified nutritionist/dietitian. The two presenters worked as team teachers in a similar way to the provision of integrated learner support in TAFE colleges. The groups involved in the project involved mainly Afghan, Armenian, Chinese and Iranian background participants. The content of each program involved teaching about risk factors and how to prevent type 2 diabetes, and much of the focus in each program was on nutrition, diet and exercise as preventive measures.
- The role of the adult literacy teachers was essentially to help provide the pedagogical conditions conducive to learning and to provide language and literacy support.
- The role of the dietitian was essentially to provide the content, the expertise in diabetes education.
This project addressed English language and literacy barriers within the context of learning about diabetes and the risks and prevention of type 2 diabetes. So the project utilised an 'integrated' concept of literacy and numeracy where these skills were taught primarily in the process of learning about diabetes.
Q: What needed to be done at the teacher level?
A: Although the teachers had different roles, they basically team taught. There was a lot of communication and planning required of the teachers and they spent a lot of time emailing and liaising with each other prior to each session. In particular they spent a lot of time structuring and sequencing the sessions, identifying who would do what and what resources and exercises they would use.
Q: How did you evaluate the program?
We evaluated the program through a process of action research that I undertook. I interviewed the presenters after every session and recorded their responses - their feedback, adjustments and issues. At the end of every program I interviewed every participant. It was a fluid process that required a good deal of flexibility.
Q: What were the outcomes?
There was evidence that participants made changes in their lifestyle and diets. Students said they changed their eating habits, often eating different types of rice and opting for lower GI food.
A: We successfully trialled a new model that has great potential for future partnerships. The concept of adult literacy teachers team teaching with health professionals in this type of partnership is new and rarely documented in Australia.
The model provided specific examples of the concept of 'integrated' literacy and numeracy, eg participants were reading food labels for a specific social purpose, and in the process they were developing their literacy and numeracy skills.
The literacy teachers needed to be flexible and adaptive, providing a supportive, 'integrated' role to the health expert, the dietitian, but also structuring the sessions with appropriate activities to reinforce learning.
I see this as a really positive direction for adult literacy, to be involved in cross-sectoral partnerships and to ensure literacy (and numeracy) is 'integrated' within social policy issues. There is huge potential for expanding to other areas of health and other social policy areas such as community development or the justice sector.
The teaching partnerships were harmonious and had good outcomes for participants and mutual benefits for the presenters. Both learnt about each other's professional areas of expertise.
There was evidence students were learning the language of diabetes and health generally, using words and concepts such as glycemic index, cholesterol, and blood glucose levels.
Importantly, we found that the participants were telling their friends about what they had learned, within their own communities, and even telling their families overseas. So the health message was being spread far and wide and having an impact far beyond just those programs. I see this as a really important social capital outcome of the project.
Q: What benefits did you get?
A: I developed skills in action research, and an understanding that health literacy is the area we really should be working in. It is an area that health and literacy professionals have a common interest in and it has huge public benefits. We should be running adult literacy courses in TAFE colleges with a major health component and link more with community organizations, much in the way that Outreach courses have been run for many years. The goal of social inclusion requires TAFE to be actively engaged and integrated with the work of local community agencies.
Report
