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- Berg, Gita, 1982-
(författare)
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Beyond the plate : Food and health, aesthetics and meaning-making in Home and consumer studies
- 2024
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overall aim of this thesis is to cultivate understandings of how meanings regarding food and health are made within the school subject home and consumer studies (HCS). The thesis builds on empirical data generated through a comprehensive case study, where 12 students from one school class and their two teachers were followed in HCS over the course of a school year. The methods used were observations, interviews, focus groups, and document collection. This work comprises four papers, where Paper I covers students’ meaning-making during cooking with a focus on aesthetic judgments. The results of Paper I illustrate different ways in which the students used aesthetic judgments, and how aesthetics became integral to meaning-making. Paper II investigates food for health as educational content, using qualification, socialization, and subjectification as an analytical framework. The results exemplify how these three educational functions can be operationalized empirically, and how a given educational content opens up for meaning-making that goes beyond learning facts and skills. In Paper III, thematic analysis is used to gain an overview of which aesthetic values were constituted in the studied practices, and how. Thus, the central roles of aesthetics in HCS food education were further illustrated. Lastly, Paper IV investigates use of the plate model as a food educational tool, using three planes of analysis as a framework. The results demonstrate how the plate model can be useful in food and health education, but also that it needs to be used with caution, for example to avoid conveying a rigid message of “right” and “wrong” dishes. Taken together, the results of the four papers show how food was a central transactant in the studied practices, i.e., how the food itself became an important co-actor in the meaning-making processes. Second, the discrepancy between the students’ focus on immediate food experiences and the teachers’ instrumental orientation is highlighted. In summary, this thesis provides empirically grounded contributions to support food educational practices in general, and HCS subject didactics in particular. Additionally, it strengthens the position of HCS as a subject to be reckoned with in wider didactic contexts, as well as in the emerging field of disciplinary aesthetics.
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| 2. |
- Berg, Gita, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
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Useful but overused? The “plate model” as a food educational tool in home economics
- 2024
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Ingår i: Food, Culture, and Society. - 1552-8014 .- 1751-7443. ; , s. 1-19
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The plate model is widely used to promote healthy eating. Despite extensive adoption in dietary guidelines, the model’s role in food educational practices is scarcely studied. The present study aimed to explore the plate model as a food educational tool in the school subject Home Economics (HE). Use of the plate model was investi-gated with Rogoff’s three planes of analysis as a framework. The research question was: “How is the plate model used in a food educational practice, considering institutional, interpersonal, and personal planes?” Data from video-recorded classroom observa-tions, focus groups, interviews, and text documents were analyzed. The data were generated through a case study, with twelve stu-dents and two HE-teachers followed over the course of a school year. Results show how the plate model was framed as the right way of eating. Nutritionally “proper” food was described, with the model functioning as a bridge linking (abstract) nutritional content with (concrete) dishes. This way of using the model might hamper understandings of fundamental principles for nutritional classifica-tion. Moreover, those who do not eat plate model-type dishes may be wrongly judged. Supported by empirical events, this study shows how the plate model can be useful – but also overused – in food education.
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| 3. |
- Berg, Gita, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
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“You fuel the car with gas, you fuel the body with food” – Educational functions of food for health in home and consumer studies
- 2024
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Ingår i: Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research. - : Routledge. - 0031-3831 .- 1470-1170. ; 68:2, s. 189-203
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study aims to contribute to the understanding of food for health as educational content in Home and Consumer Studies (HCS), specifically targeting three educational functions: (i) qualification, (ii) socialization, and (iii) subjectification. Data came from a comprehensive case study, where one school class and two HCS teachers were followed during one school year. Fourteen classroom observations and eight teacher interviews were included. It is shown how qualification functions comprise nutrition knowledge and cooking skills, how socialization functions entail, e.g., dichotomous values of food as “good” or “bad,” and how conscious consumers who take personal responsibility for themselves and the environment become promoted subjects. Taken together, the results illustrate how educational content can have consequences beyond those intended. Based on the results, an argument is made about the relevance for HCS teachers to critically reflect on their teaching and its potential educational consequences.
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