Theme Developing a Historical Lens

Session This lesson uses small group activities and a discussion to introduce the course objectives and
learning community to learners.
Overview

Date/Time: Session #3

Inquiry  How do we apply a historical perspective to conversations related to health?

 What role does Critical Consciousness play in examining health and interrupting cycles of
Question:
oppression?
 What stories does my personal narrative tell?

Objective: 1. Learners will become aware of the Political Economy of Health

2. Learners will have the opportunity to examine the ways in which our social structure
(capitalism) creates illness and inequity for particular groups of people
3. Learners will practice pulling quotes from an article to strengthen an argument
4. Learners will begin to build their historical analysis skills

Materials:  Quote strips of the Minkler article

 Copies of the Testimonio assignment for each student

Assignments 1. Minkler, Wallace, McDonald. “The Political Economy of Health: A Useful Theoretical Tool for
Education Practice. (1994)
& Readings 2. The World Health Organization. (2010). A conceptual framework for action on the social
Due Today determinants of health.
3. Gabor Mate: Why Capitalism is making us sick. Start to 12.00

Lesson: 10 min
Review the Agreements created last class. Ask if there are any questions or
comments folks would like to share regarding what was agreed upon.
Mind Stretch #2:
Respond to the follow quote: “Until lions have their own historians, tales of the
hunt will always glorify the hunter.” African Proverb
1. What role does telling our own story play in securing our humanity and
liberation?
2. What role has privilege played in US history?
3. How might we shift the manner in which history is told?
Allow a few students to share their response to the quote with the full group or in
pairs.
Reiterate that this course is deeply rooted in fist person narratives and that
everything we examine will include the perspectives of those often intentionally
 excluded from American History.

10 min Speaking in Tongues

Either in small groups or as a full class, read Anzaldua’s piece out loud. Allow
students to discuss the impact her use of language has on them.
 Why is it important that we write?
 What must we overcome in order to write our truths?
 What advice does she give to writers?
 What influence may our own stories have over those who read it?

10 min
Assign Testimonio
Read the Testimonio assignment out load with students. Answer any questions
they may have about the assignment.
Pair share: Ask students to turn to a partner and share the possible title of their
narrative. Anzaldua’s is Speaking in Tongue

5 min Explain that we are going to begin to explore the significance of the Political
Economy of Health

Show Gabor Mate Clip (your fav. 3 min. section)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaAJQR_9Dg8

Possible Debrief Questions:

 How would we define freedom?
 How does stress, trauma and political violence impact our freedom?

25 min The Political Economy of Health

Distribute quote strips to each student. Ask students to reflect in writing on their
quote, individually. What is this quote saying, what does this quote mean and why
is this quote important? Once they have had 3 min to write about their quote,

Ask students to find a classmate with the same quote as them. Allow students time
to make meaning of their quote together and collaborate their responses.

Ask students to find classmate with a different quote than them. They should read
their quotes to each other and explain the meaning of their quote to one another.

Ask students to take a seat after sharing their quotes with each other. Ask a few
students to share their quotes with the full group.

Mini Lecture:
Ask students to help you define the Political Economy of Health
Share some iteration of the following definition: “analysis and perspectives on
 health policy for the understanding of the conditions which shape population
health and health service development within the wider macroeconomic and
political context.” Dr Jaime Llambias-Wolff

Historical Analysis
Power Class and Class Conflict
The Role of the State
Consciousness Raising

Ask class to generate a list of present day policies that impact the lived conditions,
health and well being of people in the United States. Write student’s response on
the board.

Show the following Clip form The People Speak about Japanese Internment:
https://vimeo.com/1303527

After listening, ask the class these questions

 What else do we know about Japanese Internment?
 What role does the use of language play in our perception of certain policies
or events in history? Concentration Camps vs. internment vs. genocide
 What do we know about the historical context of this policy? (why was it
developed)
 How have people been impacted by this policy? Then? Now?
 Who wins and who looses because of this policy?
 What role has critical consciousness played in it’s current manifestation?
 How have people resisted? Think about the different levels of strategies
discussed in the WHO article (micro level, mesa level, macro level,
globalization environment).

5 min
Name Tent: Allow students to respond to clip in tent OR share their
reflection/understanding of the PEH

Assignments Reading:
1. Tara Yosso, “Whose Culture has Capital?”. (2005)
Given Today
Write:
1. Use the Community Cultural Wealth graphic organizer as you read to take notes
Watch:
1. Media Clip: Zinn “The People Speak” (time tbd)
At the individual level is situational power, which involves the ability to make
concrete decisions within the existing rules of the game. The ability for
individual citizens to vote is an example of situational power. p.115

The second level of power is organizational and involves the ability to define
the rules of the game, as when elites elites and powerful organizations
determine which issues become topics of debate. p. 115

Systemic or structural power focuses on the way in which the structure of

the policy and economy favors certain interests without recourse to any
conscious decisions, agenda setting, or manipulation of policy
implementation. p.115

Power and class interests also extend to determining what gets defined (or
not defined) as a health or social problem and how we treat (or do not treat)
these problems on a broad societal level. p.116

The state is seen as having inherently contradictory interests, enhancing the

profits of business, while at the same time promoting the legitimacy of the
economic system, through such means as establishing worker safety
regulations and fighting pollution. p. 116
Just as an exclusive focus on the individual level may be problematic in
some social psychological theories, the over emphasis on social structure in
certain mechanistic forms of political economy may reduce awareness of the
capacity of human beings for intentional action, and for variable responses
to the structural constraints with which they are faced. p. 123