Relational identities and intergenerational learning in an undergraduate critical food studies course

Abstract

Environmental education (EE) scholars view intergenerational learning as a means to influence adult understandings of and relationships with the environment. Yet EE researchers have studied intergenerational learning in a limited fashion, with no emphasis on its role in higher education. The purpose of this article is to use feminist posthumanist theories to broadly explore intergenerational learning in critical food studies courses taught at the university level. We rely primarily on student coursework and post-course interviews as data sources that convey student perceptions of interactions with their families and the natural world, demonstrating how students develop relational identities shaped by personal experience as well as experiences in the course. To conclude, we discuss both the limitations and implications of this research for the field of EE.

Keywords:

• Identity
• intergenerational learning
• feminist posthumanism
• animals
• critical food systems education

Notes

1 The “natural world” refers to any aspect of the living and nonliving environment that does not include humans. “Animals” refers to beings in the animal kingdom not inclusive of human beings, whereas “nonhumans” and “other living entities” include any living being besides human beings. We realize these terms reproduce problematic dichotomies, but find other terms like “more-than-human” equally fraught. <TQ: Please set footnotes as endnotes per journal style>

2 Although all students worked at the same two community gardens, they were able to visit any petting farm in the area where they lived. Since many students commute within a 75-mile radius from campus, it is thus not possible to describe the unique features of each of these petting farms. Students frequently visited a small working family farm where animals are treated according to humane standards, whereas other students visited petting farms resembling zoos. There, animals appear to be held in cages or pens primarily for human enjoyment and entertainment. Patty and Marie both visited the small working family farm, whereas Yasmine attended a Saturday petting farm on our university campus, which also maintains animals for production.

3 See (blinded for review) for more detailed descriptions of the course and the methods of data collection. See (blinded for review) for a discussion of multispecies ethnography in education. <AQ/PQ: Please update “See (blinded for review) for more detailed descriptions of the course and the methods of data collection. See (blinded for review)”>

4 All names in this manuscript, with the exception of the authors, are pseudonyms.

5 Chickens have a typical lifespan of 7 to 10 years but can live for up to 15 years (Food Empowerment Project, 2018). We do not know how old Pepa was when she was killed.

6 Melanie Joy notes that the “protein myth,” or the idea that vegetarian/vegan diets do not offer adequate protein, is actually not supported by nutritional science (2010, pp. 109–112), but rather reflects a society entrenched in carnism. However, there are recent peer-reviewed studies arguing that humans require high-quality animal protein to experience optimal health (Wu, 2016).

7 See Herzog (2010) and Joy (2010) for discussions about how people classify some animals as food and others as pets.