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Abstract
Food and health have long had dominant position within the subject of Home Economics (HE) in Sweden. However, what constitutes a proper diet, and how it is associated with a healthy lifestyle changes over time. In this article, a discourse analytic approach combined with a didactic perspective are used as the theoretical frame. The aim is to explore how food in relation to health has been constructed within the syllabus of HE. Six HE syllabi from 1962 to 2011 were analysed. From the results three different discourses were identified and named after their main areas of focus: (i) the medical discourse, (ii) the consumer discourse and (iii) the human ecological discourse. Each discourse represents a different way of constructing food in relation to health, and different representations have dominated over the past fifty years. The construction of food in relation to health is thereby seen in its historical and cultural context according to what this knowledge content includes or excludes.
Notes
1. When we discuss the curriculum subject we use the term Home Economics, even though the subject changed names in Sweden from Home Economics to Home and Consumer Studies in the year of 2000.
2. HE syllabuses from 1962 (CitationLgr62a), 1969 (Lgr69), 1980 (CitationLgr80), 1994 (CitationLgr94a), 2000 (CitationLgr2000a), 2011 (CitationLgr11).
3. There is no translation of all the syllabi published by the National Education Agency; they have only translated the three latest versions. Therefore, the translations of the syllabi quotes in this article are made by the main author in collaboration with a professional translator to obtain a uniform presentation.