Home Economics Teachers’ Perceptions of Facilitating and Inhibiting Factors When Teaching Sustainable Food Consumption

• Main Authors: Emmalee Gisslevik, Inga Wernersson, Christel Larsson
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-05-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: food-related education; education for sustainable development; home and consumer studies; teacher perceptions
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/5/1463

The aim of the present study is to explore experienced home economics (HE) teachers’ perceptions of the influencing factors that condition their teaching opportunities regarding the revised mission to implement sustainable development (SD) in food-related education. Five purposefully selected HE teachers participated in individual, semi-structured, in-depth interviews. The recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using qualitative thematic analysis. The results show a shared view of in the importance of educating the next generation of sustainable food consumers. Teachers returned to specific influencing factors that conditioned their opportunities to implement a perspective of SD in HE food education. This generated four themes: (1) Unscheduled foodwork in preparing sustainable food education, (2) opportunities to link everyday food choices with larger food system issues, (3) access to sustainable supportive food products and materials, and (4) a school environment in support of food-related teaching. The teachers outlined a number of local and national factors perceived to inhibit access to facilitators and expressed a concern for pupils’ opportunities for quality assurance and goal achievement. The suggested influencing factors could serve as propositions for further investigations in the continued work of both resource reinforcements as well as of developing a SD perspective in food-related HE education.