Active mobility as a health-promoting body practice in the school context: Opportunities and challenges

Abstract

Active mobility is an important bodily practice for health promotion when practiced as a right. It is complex and challenging, as it requires addressing structural issues based on the social and commercial dimensions of health. Schools are a strategic environment for fostering health promotion through emancipatory educational processes that consider students’ life contexts. During childhood, individuals develop tastes and preferences that can last a lifetime. Initiatives that foster healthy habits at a school age constitute a relevant health promotion strategy. Some policies, projects, and agendas have the potential to boost active mobility in schools from an intersectoral perspective, helping to overcome the utilitarian view of the practice. This essay discusses the topic by bridging the fields of (physical) education, (public) health, and (urban) planning. It presents the limits and challenges of implementing active mobility in schools, highlighting some contributions of the Health in Schools Program. Active mobility should be treated as a development of justice and a social right, and by promoting health, it can favor human development, strengthen social participation, democratic access to territories and services, and the articulation of knowledge and practices.