A model of building community motivation in joint developing the health promoting school : a case study of Huanghin School, Bankai District, Rayong Province
Abstract:
To develop a model of building community motivation in joint developing the health promoting school. The model was built from three processes. First, in-depth interviews, focus groups, and observational methods were employed in 40 community representatives to explore the factors related to community involvement. Second, an action research was conducted in 24 participants to examine the strategies that motivate the collaborative work of a community. Third, in a combination of the first two the model was developed from 4 community leaders, 8 community representatives, and 30 representatives of villagers. It was found that facilitators of or barriers to the community involvement were related to environmental, community, and school factors. The environmental factors were involved with economic, political, and socio-cultural aspects of the community. The community factors were composed of trust toward school, having senses of belonging in the community involvement, concerning the health status of children, bounding and expectations to school, abilities of community leaders, and viewing community work as an important one. The school factors consist of personnel, working strategies, and work's results. The strategies to motivate collaborative work of the community were composed of 1) motivating members to set work's challenging goals, 2) encouraging members to set strategic plans, 3) holding meetings for a goal-oriented work declaration, 4) supporting actual implementations according to the plans, 5) setting group meetings to analyze the work's barriers, 6) promoting self-changes and cultural changes related to work, 7) encouraging having working environment supported from teamwork, and 8) providing activities reflecting self-analysis. The developing of a model of building community motivation in joint developing the health promoting school had three processes: 1) community leaders were motivated to see the needs and important of community motivation, 2) the community leaders learned and gained the knowledge regarding the process of community motivation, and 3) with a cooperation from village representatives, community leaders, community representatives implemented the activities that promoted the community motivation. Results from a pilot testing of the model showed that people in the community had higher community motivation to develop the health promoting school. The model was fit to be used in developing the health promoting school at a level of good to excellent. The model users had satisfaction of creating the health promoting school at a level of very excellent. Thus, the study suggests effectiveness of the model and its application.