Food Pedagogies

In recent years everyone from politicians to celebrity chefs has been proselytizing about how we should grow, buy, prepare, present, cook, taste, eat and dispose of food. In light of this, contributors to this book argue that food has become the target of intensified pedagogical activity across a range of domains, including schools, supermarkets, families, advertising and TV media. Illustrated with a range of empirical studies, this edited and interdisciplinary volume - the first book on food pedagogies - develops innovative and theoretical perspectives to problematize the practices of teaching and learning about food. While many different pedagogues - policy makers, churches, activists, health educators, schools, tourist agencies, chefs - think we do not know enough about food and what to do with it, the aims, effects and politics of these pedagogies has been much less studied. Drawing on a range of international studies, diverse contexts, genres and different methods, this book provides new sites of investigation and lines of inquiry. As a result of its broad ranging critical evaluation of 'food as classroom' and 'food as teacher', it provides theoretical resources for opening up the concept of pedagogy, and assessing the moralities and politics of teaching and learning about food in the classroom and beyond.

Rick Flowers is Senior Lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Australia. Elaine Swan is Senior Lecturer in the School of Communication also at UTS, Australia.

Contents: Food pedagogies: histories, definitions and moralities, Rick Flowers and Elaine Swan. Part I Embodiment and Identity: Where's the pleasure? Exploring the meanings and experiences of pleasure in school-based food pedagogies, Emma Rich and John Evans; Potatoes in the rice cooker: family food pedagogies, bodily memories, meal-time senses and racial practices, Rick Flowers and Elaine Swan; 'You are what you eat!'?: crafting the (food) consuming subject through cooking shows, Seline Szkupinski-Quiroga, Jennifer A. Sandlin and Robin Redmon Wright. Part II Transformation and Affect: Food and passion: technologies of self-transformation in Jamie's Kitchen, Lyn Harrison, Peter Kelly and Perri Campbell; The Loi Evin: a pedagogical experiment in responsible drinking, Julie Robert; If I am what I eat, who am I? How critical shopping teaches adults about food, identity and social change, Kaela Jubas. Part III Governance and Authority: 'Making it local': the rural consumer, the supermarket and competing pedagogical authority, Bronwyn Isaacs and Jane Dixon; 'Just say no to pies': food pedagogies, health education and governmentality, Deana Leahy and Jo Pike. Part IV Ethics and Critique: What do food labels teach people about food ethics?, Heather J. Bray and Rachel A. Ankeny; Learning to eat with attitude: critical food pedagogies, Jennifer Sumner; Food consciousness: teaching critical theory through food narratives, Meredith E. Abarca; Of dialectical food pedagogies and political economies: taking debates forward in an afterword, Michael K. Goodman. Index.