Pupils’ Participation in and Response to Sustainable Food Education in Swedish Home and Consumer Studies: A Case-Study

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to explore conditioning factors influencing learning opportunities in food-related education taught from a perspective of sustainable development. Over the course of the eighth-grade school year, data were derived from field studies of two classes taught in Home and Consumer Studies with an exploratory case-study design. Data were analyzed using thematic and ideal-type analysis, resulting in four ideal-type portrayals: the Convinced, the Easygoing, the Unable, and the Skeptical, which characterize how pupils participate in and respond to sustainable food education in different ways. The characteristics of each of the four ideal types imply contextual frames that condition unequal learning opportunities in sustainable food education. By identifying, scrutinizing, and accommodating to existing conflicts and related structures, educational policy makers and practicing teachers can increase opportunities for pupils to develop informed reasoning, regardless of their ideal type characteristics.

KEYWORDS:

• Food-related education
• education for sustainable development
• home economics
• adolescents

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to extend their sincere thanks to the teacher and pupils for their participation. This study is part of the Swedish National Research School of HCS and was partially financed by the Swedish Research Council.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Emmalee Gisslevik http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1685-3326

Notes

1 The international counterpart of this subject is Home Economics.

2 The two remaining lessons contained teaching unrelated to food consumption, such as consumption of clothing, electronics, mobile phone subscriptions, and so on.

3 The word ideal should not be confused with the word optimal or desired; rather, it refers to subjectively constructed ideas that are justifiable enough to be objectively possible in the social reality (Weber, 1904/1977).

4 The present study will not collect or handle any personal data, as they are not relevant to the study’s aim, and the study does not intend to affect people physically or mentally since it is the authentic classroom practice that is being observed. The study is, therefore, not subject to the Ethical Review Act.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Vetenskapsrådet: [grant number 2010-4841].