Children's understanding of food and meals in the foodscape at school

Abstract

Children come into contact with food in different places and contexts, i.e. ‘foodscapes’. The aim of the paper was to study what knowledge children construct regarding food and meals in the foodscape at school and how they do so, focusing on the school meal context. Observations, interviews and focus group interviews were used. The children appropriated ideas and understandings from the adult world and society as a whole and used it among their peers in the school meal situation. This included the adoption of institutional commensality, the telling of stories about food, and the classification of foods in dichotomies.

Adolescents’ school lunch practices as an educational resource

“…Pupils were also keener to criticize those rules that restricted their sense of independence or opportunities to interact with peers. These results are supported by other studies (Ludvigsen and Scott, 2009;Persson Osowski et al, 2012;Spencer, 2013), in which social belonging has appeared as an important motivator for adolescents. From a health educational perspective, discussion is needed on how these kinds of activities could be more efficiently used as potential platforms for collaborative pedagogical dialogue in reference to learning about eating and good manners in the formal school context.…”

“…Importantly, being successful or central in the informal school often means different things than being so within the context of the formal school. In fact, from the viewpoint of the social dynamics of the informal school, breaking rules, and opposing adults might sometimes even be desirable and result in admiration and a higher status among peers (Persson-Osowski et al, 2012). When exploring adolescents' food practices in school, activities that counteract formal educational aims can also be interpreted as a part of pupils' search for agency in an otherwise quite restricted and adult-defined context.…”

“…School has traditionally been seen as an integral context for educating young people about food, eating, and health (Persson-Osowski et al, 2012). In Finland, the provision of hot and tax-paid school lunches has been a part of health promotion in schools for over 60 years, and the educational purposes of school lunches are stated in the National (Curriculum Finnish National Board of Education, 2008 [1].…”

School lunch—Children’s space or teachers’ governmentality?

“…However, sociologists have often described meals as a central activity in the formation and demonstration of cultural values (Bruselius‐Jensen, ). In recent years, the nutritional perspective on school meals has, therefore, been supplemented by social and cultural perspectives (Andersen, Holm, & Baarts, ; Dahl & Jensberg, ; Osowski, Göranzon, & Fjellström, ). Daniel and Gustafsson suggest that ‘it is the social rather than the nutritional aspects of school lunch which are at the top of children's agenda’ (, p. 265).…”

Learn4health, a European Project Creating Health and Food Literacy Through Innovative Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning Methods

“…Furthermore, school meals have been acknowledged as a special situation where learning about food and nutrition occurs (Osowski, Göranzon and Fjellström, 2011;Nahikian-Nelms, 1997;Gullberg, 2006;National Food Administration, 2007;Lintukangas, 2009). Thus, Learn4Health focuses on the theme innovative school foodscapes for future primary and secondary schools.…”