Poster: Morgan, C. and Maria Carabello. "Teaching Food Agency Through Inquiry and Action". 2017. (original) (raw)
Related papers
Defining Food Agency: An Ethnographic Exploration of Home and Student Cooks in the Northeast
2015
According to popular and academic sources, home cooking is in decline. Nutrition and public health scholars concern that a loss of cooking abilities may diminish individuals’ control over their food choices, thus contributing to poor health outcomes. Yet, there are still many unanswered questions. What skills, strategies, and knowledge sets are required to cook a meal on any given occasion? What capacity separates those who cook with ease from those who struggle to incorporate cooking into their daily routines? I propose that this difference is determined by an individual’s capacity to employ a range of cognitive and technical skills related to meal preparation. I call this capacity “food agency”. Drawing upon discourses of human agency developed in the social sciences, this food-specific theory considers how a home cook employs cognitive skills and sensory perceptions, while navigating—and shaping—various societal structures (e.g., schedule, budget, transportation, etc.) in the cou...
Emergence and Repetition: Teaching Food and Culture Using a Foods Lab
Journal of pedagogic development, 2016
For almost a decade, a small group of teachers and hundreds of students at the University of Vermont have been involved in building an innovative pedagogy that combines learning about food (and associated issues) with learning how to cook. ‘Innovative’ might sound presumptuous, given the history of home economics courses in primary, secondary and post‐secondary American education since the early 20th century. However, our pedagogy, developed in a former home economics kitchen/classroom, integrates more recent theories as to the merits of experiential education, thus moving beyond the didactic instruction typical of home economics courses over the past fifty years. We have created a learning environment in the kitchen/classroom that more easily fits into a continuum between service learning, study abroad, and the newer ‘maker spaces’ now popular in business and engineering programs. The pedagogy for this Food and Culture course involves the clear, constant, and consistent integration...
BMC Research Notes, 2011
Background: In Canada, there are limited occasions for youth, and especially at-risk youth, to participate in cooking programs. The paucity of these programs creates an opportunity for youth-focused cooking programs to be developed, implemented, and evaluated with the goal of providing invaluable life skills and food literacy to this potentially vulnerable group. Thus, an 18-month community-based cooking program for at-risk youth was planned and implemented to improve the development and progression of cooking skills and food literacy. Findings: This paper provides an overview of the rationale for and implementation of a cooking skills intervention for at-risk youth. The manuscript provides information about the process of planning and implementing the intervention as well as the evaluation plan. Results of the intervention will be presented elsewhere. Objectives of the intervention included the provision of applied food literacy and cooking skills education taught by local chefs and a Registered Dietitian, and augmented with fieldtrips to community farms to foster an appreciation and understanding of food, from 'gate to plate'. Eight at-risk youth (five girls and three boys, mean age = 14.6) completed the intervention as of November 2010. Pre-test cooking skills assessments were completed for all participants and post-test cooking skills assessments were completed for five of eight participants. Post intervention, five of eight participants completed in-depth interviews about their experience. Discussion: The Cook It Up! program can provide an effective template for other agencies and researchers to utilize for enhancing existing programs or to create new applied cooking programs for relevant vulnerable populations. There is also a continued need for applied research in this area to reverse the erosion of cooking skills in Canadian society.
Healthalicious Cooking: Learning about Food and Physical Activity: Introduction
2012
Author(s): Smith, Dorothy; Horowitz, Marcel; Neelon, Marisa; Spezzano, Theresa; Lippitt, Nancie; McMurdo, Tammy J.; Kaiser, Lucia | Abstract: This after-school curriculum is a perfect setting for promoting a healthy lifestyle that includes good foods and plenty of physical activity, helping kids build good health skills that will last a lifetime. The 6-week, hands-on after-school curriculum is designed to give 9- to 12-year-olds a fun introduction to preparing and eating healthy meals. Download all 7 publications:
P39 Culturally Adapting Nutrition Education in a Food Pantry Setting
Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 2020
Background: Peer-led nutrition education programs have been effective in improving dietary adherence among adults. Few studies, though, have focused on the participants' perceptions of peer-led programs and their intention to consume nutritious foods. Objective: To identify campus community members' perceptions of peer-led teaching abilities and intentions to prepare the plant-based cooking demo recipes. Study Design, Setting, Participants: Based on constructs from the Social Cognitive Theory and Peer-led teaching principles, 1-hour cooking demonstrations that were offered once per month for 4 months were developed and conducted at a Southern university. Peer leaders (n = 4 dietetic students, 3 undergraduate and 1 graduate) prepared 3 plant-based dishes and incorporated an interactive learning component with participants (n = 32, 41% college students). Participants rated their perceptions and intention to prepare the recipes using a validated 5-item Likert scale and responded to 4 open-ended questions about the demos. Measurable Outcome/Analysis: The scale items included teaching abilities of the peer leaders and intent to prepare the recipes. The open-ended responses included knowledge gained, strengths, and improvements of the cooking demonstrations. Frequencies from the Likertscale items were analyzed using SPSS version 25. Main themes were identified from the open-ended responses using the content-analysis method. Results: All participants agreed that the cooking demonstrations were easy to understand and 93.8% agreed that the peer leaders were confident and knowledgeable. Over 62% of participants reported their commitment to prepare the recipes and 56% were very committed to learn more about preparing plant-based foods. As reported, strengths of the demonstrations included the discussions about the nutritional value of the ingredients and the details in various food preparation techniques. Participants indicated they would have liked more hands-on opportunities. Conclusions: This pilot study showed that participants perceived the peer-led cooking demos as effective and they enhanced some of the participants' intentions to prepare plant-based food recipes. A hands-on component in this cooking demo might be useful for more of the participants to prepare plant-based foods. Funding: None.
Journal of nutrition education and behavior
Evaluate the effect of a community-based, experiential cooking and nutrition education program on consumption of fruits and vegetables and associated intermediate outcomes in students from low-income families. Quasi-experimental program evaluation by pre-post survey of participating students and their parents. Underserved elementary and middle schools in Chicago. Students (n = 271; 65% girls, 44% Hispanic, 32% African American; 94% eligible for free/reduced price lunch) in grades 3-8 selected by school staff to participate by variable inclusion criteria. 59% of students who applied returned both pre- and post-surveys. Ten-week (2 h/wk) chef-instructor-led program held in cafeteria kitchens after school. Changes in student nutrition knowledge, cooking self-efficacy, fruit and vegetable liking and consumption, and communication to family about healthy eating. Changes from beginning to end of program were analyzed with paired t test. Results were considered significant at P < .05. I...
Confident, fearful and hopeless cooks Findings from the development of a food-skills initiative
One of the many barriers to a healthier diet in low-income communities is a presumed lack of practical food skills. This article reports findings from exploratory qualitative research conducted with potential participants in a cooking skills intervention, in low income communities in Scotland. The research found widely varying levels of skill and confidence regarding cooking, supported the need for a community-based intervention approach, and demonstrated the importance of consumer research to inform the content of interventions. Challenges the view that low income communities lack skills, suggesting that food skills should be defined more broadly than " cooking from scratch ". Other barriers to healthy eating, such as poverty, food access and taste preferences, remain important. Background The need to increase the intake of fruit and vegetables, fibre-rich starchy carbohydrates and fish is well recognised but many people are failing to put these dietary changes into practice (The Scottish Office, 1996; Scottish Executive, 2001; National Consumer Council, 2003). A low practical food skills base may limit intake in relation to the preparation of basic foods. There is a possible double jeopardy effect for those on low incomes without food skills, who cannot buy themselves out of the dilemma as readily as can those on high incomes. This article describes the exploratory qualitative research conducted to inform the content of an intervention designed to address this low food skills base among low income communities. The intervention, called Cookwell, is a community-based, food skills initiative, consisting of a series of practical cookery classes run in a community setting. It aims to improve the nutritional quality of the diets of participants and their families, specifically by encouraging increased consumption of fibre-rich starchy carbohydrates, fish, vegetables and fruit and decreasing consumption of fat, among adults living in areas of deprivation. Between 2000-2002, Cookwell courses were run in
Modern Transference of Domestic Cooking Skills
Nutrients
As the primary source of learning cooking skills; it is vital to understand what mothers think about the transference of cooking skills to their children. The current analysis aimed to highlight mothers’ perceptions of children’s involvement and cooking practices within the home setting. Sixteen focus group discussions were conducted on the island of Ireland (Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland [UK]) with 141 mothers aged 20–39 years old. All focus groups were transcribed verbatim and an inductive thematic analysis using NVivo software was undertaken. Seven themes emerged from the dataset; (1) “How we learned to cook”; (2) “Who’s the boss”; (3) “Children in the way”; (4) “Keep kids out”; (5) “Involvement means eating”; (6) “Intentions versus reality”; and (7) “Kids’ ‘interest’ in cooking”. These themes illustrate a lack of cooking skill transference in relation to everyday meal preparation in modern times. The culture of children in the kitchen has vastly changed; and opportuni...
Health Promotion Practice, 2020
Evidence of the benefits of culinary nutrition education is growing in the literature. Culinary nutrition education programs are naturally experiential, social, skills-based, and effective in improving nutrition-related beliefs, knowledge, and behaviors. In this article, we explore a set of motivational experiences in culinary nutrition education that have been identified as “drivers” of behavior change. These drivers emerged from 20 years of implementation and evaluation of hands-on cooking programs across the life span in more than 30 states within the United States. From these drivers, we developed a framework to guide both new and existing programs that can be best designed to motivate behavior change. These frameworks add value to the work of culinary nutrition educators and will inform and support future culinary nutrition education programs. In future research, health educators implementing skills-based health promotion programs in diverse settings can test the application of...