Education as a determinant of Indigenous health

This paper begins with a brief review of international research, which demonstrates the link between education and health, followed by an account of the quantitative, qualitative and theoretical studies carried out by the [Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal and Tropical Health] CRCATH. The second part of this paper is a preliminary report into the progress we have made trying to achieve greater clarity about the meanings of the education-health link, and what action should flow from this in the specific context of Indigenous peoples’ health. Our methodology was to undertake a series of semi-structured dialogues between two academically trained researchers - one an educationalist, the other a health professional - and a small number of Indigenous health leaders, including our co-author and project leader. These dialogues helped us to clarify meaning, and also addressed a key finding of the social determinants literature, namely that power and control are at the heart of health inequalities. The third part of the paper draws together these first two elements - the review of the research literature and the dialogue with the health leaders - to build some illustrative models of the way in which education can be better understood as both a determining factor in the reproduction of health inequalities, and as an active intervention into overcoming them. In the final section, we suggest some future directions for research and program development.

Excerpts from chapter introduction. Show less