Creating active identities in childhood and adolescence

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The research group Physical Activity, Education and Society (Actividad Física, Educación y Sociedad; AFES) of the University of Valencia has among its main research lines the promotion of physical activity and health. From the early 90s, the group carried out numerous descriptive studies, both cross-sectional and longitudinal, which have established the relationship between physical activity and different health variables. In addition, we belong to the International Research Network on Physical Education and Promotion of Healthy Habits (Red Internacional de Investigación en Educación Física y Promoción de Hábitos Saludables; EDUFISALUDABLE), whose main objective is the development of projects that help to generate scientific knowledge and effective interventions from the area of Physical Education, with the aim of improving the healthy habits of young people and adolescents.

Based on this knowledge, in recent years the group has focused on the design, development and/or evaluation of collaborative interventions through case studies in the educational context. This purpose was based on promoting healthy lifestyle habits, as well as establishing initial and ongoing training processes with both students and teachers in schools. These actions have led to the creation of the Escola Activa project financed by the Counselling of Innovation, Universities, Science and Digital Society of the Generalitat Valenciana, whose intention is focused on the study of the Schools Promoting Physical Activity and Sport (CEPAFE) of the Valencian Community. In this sense, one of the main actions of the project is the celebration of the I International Congress Escola Activa i Salut with the slogan "creating active identities in childhood and adolescence". With this congress we intend to make known scientific advances, institutional and community strategies, as well as successful experiences and good practices in relation to the promotion of healthy habits in the different educational stages (Infant, Primary, Secondary and University Education).

The congress is aimed at both the scientific community and all the agents involved in the promotion of physical and sporting activity in the school context (school management teams, teaching staff, research staff) and in the community (city sports departments, heads of sports departments, sports educators, extracurricular staff). In this sense, the program of activities is designed so that all the educational agents can, in addition to registering as attendees, participate by sending communications that include actions, strategies or good practices for the promotion of physical activity, sport and health, and/or contributing to the photographic exhibition that will be on display during the congress.

Regarding the structure of the congress, it will begin on the afternoon of Thursday 9 November with the opening speech, the photographic exhibition "Promoting healthy lifestyles in ..." and the social program parallel to the conference. It will continue throughout Friday 10 November with the development of different panel discussion, communication sessions, training workshops and the official congress dinner. It will conclude on Saturday 11 November with panel discussions, paper sessions and the closing conference. We hope that the proposed program of activities will enable those attending to reconcile the conference with their working or training day.

In short, the ultimate aim of this event is to join forces that contribute to the creation and consolidation of schools as fundamental health assets, along the lines of those indicated by reference institutions such as the World Health Organization or the School for Health in Europe. This objective will surely help to transfer and optimize the initiatives that are already being developed in terms of the creation of active schools both at national, regional and local level, as well as at international level.

OBJECTIVES

-To promote the exchange and dissemination of experiences and good practices on the promotion of healthy habits in educational contexts, as well as research and studies on the subject.

-To present the results of research projects on the promotion of health and physical activity in educational and priority contexts.

-To facilitate the exchange of experiences, study results and decision making on new avenues of research among professionals involved in health education and the promotion of active lifestyles.

-To analyze the different perspectives and approaches on which public and institutional policies are organized and how they are applied in different school contexts.


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