Health Literacy—Talking the Language of (School) Education

doi:10.3928/24748307-20190502-01 The links between school education and health have been of interest to researchers for several decades, and health literacy in particular has been associated with the healthpromoting school approach for almost 20 years (St Leger, 2001; St Leger & Nutbeam, 2000). From an educational perspective, this is not surprising because there is little doubt that health literacy is a competence that contributes to health skill development and can be facilitated through educational practices. Although health-related skill development has been a core pillar of health promotion since the Ottawa Charter (Nutbeam, 1998), few countries have included health literacy as a theoretical framework within their school health curriculum (e.g., Australia [Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2012], Finland (Finnish National Board of Education, 2014], and the United States [Joint Committee on Health Education Standards, 1995]), and even fewer have made the subject obligatory. As a result, few countries offer teacher training in relation to health literacy. This lack of training puts pupils as well as teachers in an unfavorable position because teachers are not equipped with health literacy teaching methods so pupils cannot be adequately supplied with health literacy skills. Health literacy is strongly bound up with the field of education and forms a perfect bridge between the health and education fields. The benefits of including health literacy with education in the European Union have been shown in a recent policy brief (McDaid, 2016), and globally, health literacy was defined as an important education target at the World Health Organization’s Shanghai conference in 2016 (World Health Organization, 2017). Therefore, in this present article, we wish to return to the discussion on linking education and health via health literacy, seeking common ground regarding the language used and the arguments presented. It may seem self-evident that when we talk about schools, we are talking about educational processes, but this is not always the case. We present three arguments that may bring new insights into the discussion and foster the uptake of health literacy in schools internationally.