Food professionals’ opinions of the Food Studies curriculum in Australia
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the food system professionals’ opinions of a new senior secondary school food literacy curriculum named Victorian Certificate of Education Food Studies in Victoria, Australia.
Design/methodology/approach
A purposive sample of 34 food system professionals from different sub-sectors within the Australian food system was interviewed individually in late 2015 and early 2016. Interviews were analysed using the template analysis technique.
Findings
Most participants appreciated the extensive coverage of food literacy aspects in this new curriculum. However, many suggested amendments to the curriculum including pay less emphasis on food history-related topics and pay more focus on primary food production, nutrition awareness and promotion, and food security, food sovereignty, social justice, and food politics.
Practical implications
A well-structured, comprehensive secondary school food literacy curriculum could play a crucial role in providing food literacy education for adolescents. This will help them to establish healthy food patterns and become responsible food citizens. The findings of this study can be used to modify the new curriculum to make it a more comprehensive, logical, and feasible curriculum. Moreover, these findings could be used to inform the design of new secondary school food literacy curricula in Australia and other countries.
Originality/value
The exploration of perspectives of professionals from a broad range of food- and nutrition-related areas about school food literacy education makes this study unique. This study highlights the importance of food professionals’ opinions in secondary school food-related curricula development.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank all the food and nutrition professionals who participated in this study. The authors are also grateful to the curriculum manager of the new “Food Studies” curriculum for the inspiring thoughts.
Citation
Nanayakkara, J., Margerison, C. and Worsley, A. (2017), "Food professionals’ opinions of the Food Studies curriculum in Australia", British Food Journal, Vol. 119 No. 12, pp. 2945-2958. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-02-2017-0112
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited