A case-study of a curriculum development process in nutrition education using empowerment as organizational policy

While many nutrition education curricula have been developed, there is a de arth of published description of the process of development and the insight s gained that might be useful to others. The purpose of this study was to p rovide such a description. The study used participant-observation as a qual itative analytical method; empowerment as an organizational policy, and a U NESCO manual (Contento and Morin, 1988) as a guide to develop a nutrition e ducation curriculum for a low-income area of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The cu rriculum development team of ten members was representative of various stak eholders of the school community. Observation of the process yielded severa l important insights: Empowerment used as an organizational policy, with th e involvement of the entire community during the planning process, can enha nce people's ability to work together and develop a realistic sense of succ ess, ownership and high commitment to curriculum implementation; profession als and lay people can design a curriculum together if a planning framework is provided to enhance mutual competence; all members of the team, regardl ess of educational level or background, should be involved in designing and pilot-testing instruments, analyzing needs assessment data and designing l esson plans; and effective leadership is important, based on ability to fac ilitate group process, foster open communication, value and integrate the d iffering views and skills of team members and bring closure to tasks.