Food Futures in Education and Society

This book brings together a unique collection of chapters to facilitate a broad discussion on food education that will stimulate readers to think about key policies, recent research, curriculum positions and how to engage with key stakeholders about the future of food. Food education has gained much attention because the challenges that influence food availability and eating in schools also extend beyond the school gate. Accordingly, this book establishes evidence-based arguments that recognise the many facets of food education, and reveal how learning through a future's lens and joined-up thinking is critical for shaping intergenerational fairness concerning food futures in education and society. This book is distinctive through its multidisciplinary collection of chapters on food education with a particular focus on the Global North, with case studies from England, Australia, the Republic of Ireland, the United States of America, Canada and Germany. With a focus on three key themes and a rigorous food futures framework, the book is structured into three sections: (i) food education, pedagogy and curriculum, (ii) knowledge and skill diversity associated with food and health learning and (iii) food education inclusivity, culture and agency. Overall, this volume extends and challenges current research and theory in the area of food education and food pedagogy and offers insight and tangible benefits for the future development of food education policies and curricula. This book will be of great interest to students, scholars, policymakers and education leaders working on food education and pedagogy, food policy, health and diet and the sociology of food.

Gurpinder Singh Lalli is Reader in Education for Social Justice and Inclusion at the University of Wolverhampton, UK. He is sole author of Schools, Food and Social Learning (Routledge, 2019), co-editor of School Farms: Feeding and Educating Children (Routledge, 2021) and sole author of Schools, Space and Culinary Capital (Routledge, 2023). Angela Turner is an adjunct senior lecturer in Design and Technology in the Faculty of Education at Southern Cross University, Australia. She is the co-editor of International Perspectives of Food Education in the School Curriculum (2020). Marion Rutland is an honorary research fellow at the University of Roehampton, UK. She is the co-editor of International Perspectives of Food Education in the School Curriculum (2020).

PART ONE: OVERVIEW - Introduction: Food futures in education PART TWO: POLICY, CURRICULUM, AND PEDAGOGY - School mealtime as a pedagogical event - Healthy Lifestyles Project: A practical food programme for primary schools - Food technology as a subject to be taught in secondary schools: A discussion of content, relevance, and pedagogy - Learning from the true school food experts: An ethnographic investigation of middle school students during school lunch - The role of schools in supporting healthy eating in children and young people - Home economics curriculum policy in Ireland: Lessons for policy development - Food Technology and 21st century learning PART THREE: PSYCHOLOGY OF FOOD - Food waste issues of universal infant free school meals in south-east England schools: A cautionary tale - Belonging, identity, inclusion, and togetherness: The lesser-known social benefits of food for children and young people - Is the ability to cook enough to foster good eating habits in the future? Investigating how schools can empower positive food choices in adolescents PART FOUR: SOCIOLOGY OF FOOD - Social media platforms and adolescents' nutritional careers: Upcoming development tasks and required literacies - Food poverty and how it affects UK children in the long term - School food lifeworlds: Children's relational experience of school food and its importance in their early primary school years - 'I like it when I can sit with my best friends': Exploration of children's agency to achieve commensality in school mealtimes - Friends, not food: How inclusive is education for young vegans in Scotland? - Food pathways to community success - A renewed pedagogy for health co-benefit: Combining nutrition and sustainability education in school food learnings and practices - Exploring intersectional feminist food pedagogies through the Recipe Exchange Project PART FIVE: CONCLUSION - Conclusion: Food futures in education