New Brunswick approach to Comprehensive School Health: Healthy learners in schools and the community school

Abstract

In this thesis, a multiple case study methodology and semi-structured interviews are used to identify and describe the barriers and facilitators to the implementation of a Comprehensive School Health (CSH) initiative, Healthy Learners in Schools (HLS), in two elementary schools within the same Francophone school district in New Brunswick, Canada. The first article in this thesis identifies five categories of factors that influence the implementation of HLS in the two schools. The second article provides evidence that another initiative, the Community School, is an effective way of implementing the CSH approach in schools. Overall, there was found to be large differences pertaining to school health promotion in the two schools involved in this study; many refinements of the implementation process are necessary if the provincial government's goals are to be met.