Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

Content

The topics will be drawn from the following topics: 

• The Body: Feminist theory and research, discussions of gender, deviance and the work of Foucault. The social construction of the healthy, fit, beautiful body. Regulating and controlling the body – cosmetic surgery; food, diet and eating. Disability, the body and technology. 
• A sociological approach to food: the medicalisation of food; the obesity debate – epidemic or moral panic. 
• The social distribution of health and illness: Defining illness and wellbeing. The relationship between class, gender, culture, ethnicity, location and health. 
• Australian health policy and health care system in comparative global context. Access to care, Medicare. Complementary and alternative medicine.  
• The social organisation of health care: Formal care - the structure of the hospital, the medical profession and para professions. Challenges to medical dominance. Alternative systems of care. Informal care: Dealing with short term and chronic ill health.  
• The social construction of health, illness and wellbeing: the illness experience and chronic illnesses; the sick role; medicalisation, public representations of health, Familial and societal acknowledgements of the life stages.  
• New technologies – who pays, who benefits, who decides? How much do we know – how much information is in the public arena? What is the role of the media and what are the public perceptions, concerns and debates? 

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

The Learning and Teaching Strategy in this online unit places student learning and engagement at centre stage, with focus on individual and inquiry-based learning. Students are encouraged in learning of health, illness and wellbeing to draw on lived experience, and to complement this with weekly text readings and media analyses. Teaching involves integrated weekly online lectures and student learning activities. Along with content delivery from the lecturer, teaching strategies include, small group or online discussion and use of online, interactive multimedia and tools for in-class research. Skills in data analysis are developed and reinforced using data from large health data sets such as the ABS National Health Survey.  

This is a 10-credit point unit and has been designed to ensure that the time needed to complete the required volume of learning to the requisite standard is approximately 150 hours in total across the semester. To achieve a passing standard in this unit, students will find it helpful to engage in the full range of learning activities and assessments utilised in this unit. The learning and teaching and assessment strategies include a range of approaches to support your learning such as reading, reflection, discussion, webinars, podcasts, video etc.