Browsing by Subject "ohjausvastuu"

Goals. This thesis examines the views of secondary school teachers on school meals. The aim of this thesis is to determine how teachers perceive the connection between school meals and education, as well as how they comprehend the concept of food sense, which is named as a key goal in the recommendations on food education. The foundation of this thesis is based on previous studies on school meals in overall and from the views of the teachers, food education, and National Nutrition Council’s publication of school meal recommendations. In general, school catering from teachers’ point of view is not widely studied field in Finland. Methods. The data of this thesis are collected through a focus group interview. The participants were all either teachers of home economics, health education and biology, or teachers of health education and art. Health education, biology, and home economics are all school subjects mentioned in the recommendations on school meals, (Kouluruokailusuositukset, 2017), as examples, since they illustrate themes that are naturally connected with school meals. The audio recording of the focus group interview is transcribed fully, and it comprised transcription of eight sheets in length. The transcription was analyzed with the means of content analysis. The aim of the content analysis is to clarify the data and add information value. Results and conclusions. The teachers viewed school meals as educational opportunities since they found that it has supportive qualities both nutritionally and from the view of coping during the school day. The school meals are also found to be beneficial when practicing social skills. The school meals can have wider range of a purpose and they can be seen as an interdisciplinary educational event. For example, the teachers planned cooperative projects involving school meal times, using them as examples in other education, organizing holiday- and themed day meals. The possibilities in the education of ethicalness, safety, work and (multi)culturalism and sustainable development were not present in the data. The concept of food sense was estimated in this study to be unfamiliar for two out three of the teachers, probably due to the fact that it is a relatively new and wide range. The pedagogical competence of the teachers can be improved with, for example, adding school meals as a part of the teacher training, re-evaluating the physical conditions of the space, and combining education and school meals more versatilely.