Abstract
We discuss a project for research based development of the Swedish school subject Home and Consumer Studies (HCS) by working with and utilizing taste as a component in teaching. Food production and consumption are one of the biggest drivers of global climate change and thus one of the biggest sustainability challenges of our time. To teach sustainable food consumption in school, our suggestion is that pupils need to experience, learn and create new habits for what tastes good and how to make unaccustomed foods and dishes taste good. We need from teaching to promote pupils’ confidence in their own ability to make changes in their personal life, as well as in shaping society. A transactional understanding of taste – taste as something that gets meaning in the encounter between the one who tastes and what is tasted - is one way to address these issues in school. In spring 2021, we carried out a pilot project in collaboration between three researchers and three HCS-teachers to discuss and try out teaching activities. In this work we acknowledged the challenge to teach sustainable food consumption without becoming normative. Our conclusion is that to avoid normativity, the pupils need to be prepared with both relevant knowledge about the issue as well as with knowledge about the decision-making processes involved in choosing what to eat. Taste is central here and that teaching make visible and provide tools for handling complex value conflicts in connection with the selection of food.
Presenters
Lolita GelinderSenior lecturer, School of Education, Culture and Communication, Division of Early Childhood Edcuation, Mälardalen University, Sweden Malena Lidar
Senior lecturer, Department of Education, Uppsala University, Sweden
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
Food Production and Sustainability
KEYWORDS
Taste, Sustainable food consumption, Education, Home and Consumer Studies
