Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T14:42:02.463Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Creating a Health and Sustainability Nexus in Food Education: Designing Third Spaces in Teacher Education

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2015

Jennifer Elsden-Clifton  and
Debi Futter-Puati
Jennifer Elsden-Clifton*
Affiliation:
RMIT University, Australia
Debi Futter-Puati
Affiliation:
University of Waikato, New Zealand
*
Address for correspondence: Dr Jennifer Elsden-Clifton, RMIT University, PO Box 71, Bundoora 3083, Victoria, Australia. Email: jennifer.elsden-clifton@rmit.edu.au
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

There is growing pressure from the public health sector, government, environmental, medical and scientific fields to teach young people about food. However, little is known about pre-service teachers’ preparation in this area. This article addresses this gap by providing a case study of one approach to food education, which was purposefully designed to bring together two fields — health education and education for sustainability (EfS) — in teacher education in Victoria, Australia. This article outlines the ways in which this approach has the potential to challenge the conventions of both fields and ‘spaces’ of health (first space) and sustainability (second space), and gave rise to a possible ‘third space’ (Soja, 1996). This article uses data collected from Promoting Health Education, a 10-week course designed for generalist primary school pre-service teachers. It also utilises reflections from pre-service teachers and teacher educators (also the authors) to explore how they navigated first, second and third spaces. In doing so, the authors examine some of the learning potentials and difficulties within third spaces, including: designing third spaces; wrestling with the dominance of first space; complexities of second space; and questioning what might be lost and gained through the design of third spaces.

Keywords

teacher educationfood educationpre-service teacherscritical health educationeducation for sustainability
Type
Feature Articles
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 31 , Special Issue 1: Putting Food on the Table , July 2015 , pp. 86 - 98
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Australian Curriculum and Assessment Reporting Authority (ACARA). (2014). Foundation to Year 10 Curriculum: Health and Physical Education. Retrieved from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/health-and-physical-education/Curriculum/F-10?layout=1Google Scholar
Beckford, C.L., & Pandya, P. (2008). Re-positioning Ecological Education in teacher education programs in Ontario. Journal of Teaching and Learning, 5 (1), 55–66.Google Scholar
Bhabha, H. (1990). The third space, in Rutherford, J. (ed.). Identity, Community, Culture, Difference, London: Lawrence and Wishart.Google Scholar
Bhabha, H. (1994). The location of culture. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Burrows, L., & McCormack, J. (2012). Teachers’ talk about health, self and the student ‘body’. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 33 (5), 729–744.Google Scholar
Byrne, J., Speller, V., Dewhirst, S., Roderick, P., Almond, P., Grace, M., & Memon, A. (2012). Health promotion in pre-service teacher education: Effects of a pilot inter-professional curriculum change. Health Education, 112 (6), 525–542.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cliff, K., & Wright, J. (2010). Confusing and contradictory: Considering obesity discourse and eating disorders as they shape body pedagogies in HPE. Sport, Education and Society, 15 (2), 221–233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Currie, J. (2013). Teaching physical education in primary school: An integrated health perspective. Melbourne, Australia: ACER Press.Google Scholar
Cutter-Mackenzie, A., & Tilbury, D. (2002). Meeting commitments for a sustainable future. In Knight, B.A. (Ed.), Reconceptualising learning in the knowledge society (pp. 17–34). Brisbane, Australia: Post Pressed.Google Scholar
Evans, J., Evans, B., & Rich, E. (2003). ‘The only problem is, children will like their chips’: Education and the discursive production of ill-health. Pedagogy, Culture and Society, 11 (2), 215–240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fahlman, M. M., Dake, J., McCaughtry, N., & Martin, J. (2008). A pilot study to examine the effects of a nutrition intervention on nutrition knowledge, behaviors, and efficacy expectations in middle school children. The Journal of School Health, 78 (4), 216–222.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fahlman, M., McCaughtry, N., Martin, J., & Shen, B. (2011). Efficacy, intent to teach, and implementation of nutrition education increases after training for health educators. American Journal of Health Education, 42 (3), 181–190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferreira, J. A., Ryan, L., & Tilbury, D. (2007). Mainstreaming education for sustainable development in initial teacher education in Australia: A review of existing professional development models. Journal of Education for Teaching, 33 (2), 225–239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fien, J. (2001). Education for sustainability: Reorienting Australian schools for a sustainable future (Tela papers, no. 8). Brisbane, Australia: Australian Conservation Foundation, Australian Association of Environmental Education, Trust for Young Australians.Google Scholar
Flaschberger, E. (2013). Initial teacher education for school health promotion in Austria: Does it support the implementation of the health-promoting school approach? Health Education, 113 (3), 216–231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibbs, L., Staiger, P.K., Johnson, B., Block, K., Macfarlane, S., Gold, L., & Ukoumunne, O. (2013). Expanding children's food experiences: The impact of a school-based kitchen garden program. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 45 (2), 137–146.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gleitzman, M. (2008). Give peas a chance. Melbourne, Australia: Puffin Books.Google Scholar
Goleszowski, R., & Sadler, C. (2007). Shaun the sheep. United Kingdom, British Broadcasting Corporation.Google Scholar
Gough, A. (2002). Mutualism: A different agenda for science and environmental education. International Journal of Science Education, 24 (11), 1201–1215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gough, A. (2009, March). Not for want of trying: Strategies for re-orienting teacher education for ESD. Keynote address presented to the 12th UNESCO-APEID International Conference, Bangkok, Thailand. Retrieved from http://www.unescobkk.org/education/apeid/apeid-international-conference/apeidconf08/speakers-and-speeches/annette-gough/not-for-want-of-trying-strategies-for-re-orienting-teacher-education-for-education-for-sustainable-development/Google Scholar
Gough, A. (2011). The Australian-ness of curriculum jigsaws: Where does environmental education fit? Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 27 (1), 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gutiérrez, K.D., Baquedano-Lopez, P., & Turner, M.G. (1997). Putting language back into language arts: When the radical middle meets the third space. Language Arts, 75 (5), 368–378.Google Scholar
Jones, M., Dailami, N., Weitkamp, E., Salmon, D., Kimberlee, R., Morley, A., & Orme, J. (2012). Food sustainability education as a route to healthier eating: Evaluation of a multi-component school programme in English primary schools. Health Education Research, 27 (3), 448–458.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jourdan, D., Samdal, O., Diagne, F., & Carvalho, G.S. (2008). The future of health promotion in schools goes through the strengthening of teacher training at a global level. Promotion & Education, 15 (3), 36–38.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kennelly, J., Taylor, N., & Serow, P. (2012). Early career primary teachers and education for sustainability. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 21 (2), 139–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leahy, D. (2009). Disgusting pedagogies. In Wright, J. & Harwood, V. (Eds.), Biopolitics and the ‘obesity epidemic’ governing bodies (pp. 172–182). New York and London: Routlege.Google Scholar
Leahy, D., & McCuaig, L. (2014). Disrupting the field: Teacher education in health education. In Fitzpatrick, K. & Tinning, R. (Eds.), Health education: Healthism and neoliberal bodies. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Libman, K. (2007). Growing youth growing food: How vegetable gardening influences young people's food consciousness and eating habits. Applied Environmental Education and Communication, 6 (1), 87–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miles, R., Harrison, L., & Cutter-Mackenzie, A. (2006). Teacher education: A diluted environmental education experience. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 22 (1), 49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moje, E., Ciechanowski, K., Kramer, K., Ellis, L., Carrillo, R., & Collazo, T. (2004). Working toward third space in content area literacy: An examination of everyday funds of knowledge and discourse. Reading Research Quarterly, 39 (1), 38–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgan, K., & Sonnino, R. (2013). The school food revolution: Public food and the challenge of sustainable development. Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
New Zealand Ministry of Education. (2008). Focus on food Te Arotahi kit e Kai: Thinking critically about food and nutrition for teachers of Years 5 to 8. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.Google Scholar
O’Dea, J. A. (2005). Prevention of child obesity: ‘First, do no harm’. Health Education Research, 20 (2), 259–265.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ovens, A., & Tinning, R. (2009). Reflection as situated practice: A memory-work study of lived experience in teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25 (8), 1125–1131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ozer, E.J. (2007). The effects of school gardens on students and schools: Conceptualization and considerations for maximizing health development. Health Education & Behaviour, 34, 846–863.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paakkari, L., Tynjälä, P., & Kannas, L. (2010). Student teachers’ ways of experiencing the teaching of health education. Studies in Higher Education, 35 (8), 905–920.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paakkari, L., & Välimaa, R. (2013). Ethical issues in the teaching and learning of health topics in schools: The conceptions of teacher trainees. Teaching and Teacher Education, 34, 66–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patrick, R., Capetola, T., & Nuttman, S. (2012). A participatory action research project at the nexus of health promotion and sustainability in higher education. Focus on Health Professional Education: A Multi-disciplinary Journal, 14 (1), 67.Google Scholar
Pike, J., & Leahy, D. (2012). School food and the pedagogies of parenting. Australian Journal of Adult Learning, 52 (3), 434.Google Scholar
Russell, C., Cameron, E., Socha, T., & McNinch, H. (2014). ‘Fatties Cause Global Warming’: Fat pedagogy and environmental education. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 18, 27–45.Google Scholar
Skouteris, H., Do, M., Rutherford, L., Cutter-Mackenzie, A., & Edwards, S. (2010). Call for research — The consuming child-in-context in unhealthy and unsustainable times. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 26, 33–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soja, E.W. (1996). Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and other real and imagined places. Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Tilbury, D., Coleman, V., & Garlick, D. (2005). A national review of environmental education and its contribution to sustainability in Australia: School education. Canberra, Australia: Australian Government Department of the Environment and Heritage and Australian Research Institute in Education for Sustainability (ARIES).Google Scholar
Weaver-Hightower, M.B. (2011). Why education researchers should take school food seriously. Educational Researcher, 40 (1), 15–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Welch, R., McMahon, S., & Wright, J. (2013). The medicalisation of food pedagogies in primary schools and popular culture: A case for awakening subjugated knowledges. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 33 (5), 713–728.Google Scholar
Welch, R., & Wright, J. (2011). Tracing discourses of health and the body: Exploring pre-service primary teachers’ constructions of ‘healthy’ bodies. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 39 (3), 199–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, D., & Brown, J. (2012). Learning gardens and sustainability education: Bringing life to schools and schools to life. New York: RoutledgeGoogle Scholar
Wilson, S. (2012). Drivers and blockers: Embedding Education for Sustainability (EfS) in primary teacher education. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 28 (1), 42–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
World Health Organization. (1986, November). Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. Presented at the First International Conference on Health Promotion: The Move Towards a New Public Health, Ottawa.Google Scholar
Yager, Z., & O’Dea, J. (2009). Body image, dieting and disordered eating and activity practices among teacher trainees: Implications for school-based health education and obesity prevention programs. Health Education Research, 24 (2), 472–482.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed