Children’s food maps: using social mapping to understand school foodscapes

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the use of mapping as part of an ethnographic research project exploring food experiences in primary schools. Whilst the main data collection instrument was participant observation, the project made use of a creative social mapping activity. Towards the end of fieldwork, children were asked to draw maps of the food spaces at school. This paper discusses how the creation of the maps and simultaneous conversations that took place both around the maps’ construction and in relation to questions asked revealed particular knowledges and spatial perspectives of children’s food experiences. This paper argues that the appearance of certain spaces on the maps caused me to re-evaluate my understanding of the foodscapes at school. This paper concludes by highlighting some of the challenges encountered but argues that the mapping activity provided a wealth of additional information. This paper shows the importance of including children’s perspectives when examining questions of spatiality.

KEYWORDS:

• Social mapping
• ethnography
• foodscapes
• food education
• schools
• spaces

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Pat Thomson and Jess Mason for comments on earlier drafts of this paper. I would also like to thank the reviewers for helpful comments and feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Lexi Earl http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6906-3742

Notes

1 All three schools in this study were given pseudonyms.