Browsing by Author "Ferranti, Lotta"

Sustainable food education aims to promote consumers' knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values related to the sustainable food system. In the national curriculum for basic education (2014) the topics related to the sustainable food system are present especially in home economics. Based on previous studies, one factor that affects the implementation of sustainable food education in home economics is the teaching material dealing with the subject area. However, little research has been done on sustainable food education and related teaching materials. The purpose of this study was to investigate how Finnish home economics textbooks support sustainable food education. In this study the textbooks were seen as tools of sustainable food education. The research objectives were to study what topics related to sustainable food consumption are presented in the home economics textbooks and what values are present within the texts. The research material consisted of three home economics textbooks published after the current national curriculum for basic education (2014). The investigation focused on the texts which concerned both sustainability and food consumption. The data was analyzed with a qualitative theory-based content analysis. Shalom Schwartz's value theory was used in the examination of values. The studied home economics textbooks cover sustainable food consumption extensively and the contents in the three studied textbooks are rather similar. The textbooks depict sustainable food consumption as food consumption that promotes individual’s health and well-being, is ecological and economical, ethical, and responsible and in which planning and moderation of consumption and maintaining one’s own food culture and traditions are important. In practice, this implies avoiding food waste and favoring local and organic food to mention a few. In the context of sustainable food consumption health is the most emphasized value in the textbooks. The values of universalism, benevolence, and tradition are also relevant, while hedonism and conformity are given less importance. The research provides information on the contents related to sustainable food consumption in the textbooks. This information can help identify gaps in the teaching materials and support supplementing them.