Innovations in Ecological Public Health and Health Education

Dear Colleagues,

In this special issue we invite a range of perspectives on using asset- and strengths-based, decolonizing, anti-racist, and equity informed approaches to teaching and learning around the interconnection between human, animal and ecosystem health.

Ecological public health is an arena of scholarship and practice focused on the interrelationships between the health of humans, animals and ecosystems. Whether in public health, medicine or medical specialisms such as paediatrics, and across scales from rural through to global health, there is a growing call from students to learn more about human health in the context of the living world. Pandemics, not only COVID-19 but also Syndemics, illuminate the complex interplay between structural inequities and the disproportionate effects of ecological events on a range of equity deserving populations.  

This special issue is intended to foreground and celebrate work that is advancing equity and diversity informed approaches to understanding the interplay between a range of determinants of health (social, environmental, ecological, planetary, Indigenous). Does your teaching help students process the enormity of the intergenerational climate justice issues they face? Has your curriculum brought Indigenous knowledge, knowledge holders and decolonizing approaches to teach about the interconnection between humans, animals and the earth? Have you developed educational frameworks or core competencies to guide a new generation of ecological public health work? What innovations in experiential education, and novel approaches to course delivery have you championed? How are you co-creating knowledge with students and colleagues? How are you evaluating the efficacy and learning outcomes of this innovative teaching and learning? How does our education help students understand and work with people in the context of their living realities? Are you working in the context of an education unit that does not embrace this work, what are your strategies for moving ahead in this innovative space?

Dr. Maya K. Gislason
Prof. Dr. José Carmelo Adsuar Sala
Guest Editors

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