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Food Safety Learning in Home and Consumer Studies: Teachers' and Students' Perspectives
Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Food, Nutrition and Dietetics.
2017 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

The aim of this thesis was to explore food safety as part of Home and consumer studies (HCS) education in Swedish compulsory school.

Firstly, a nationwide web-based questionnaire was performed among HCS teachers to obtain an overall picture of their knowledge, behaviour and attitudes regarding food safety.  The second study was a questionnaire among school Year 9 students, where the data were collected using a student response system. The questions were related to the students’ food safety knowledge and behaviour, as well as cooking habits and sources of food safety knowledge and trust. Finally, qualitative interviews were performed among HCS teachers regarding their didactic choices of teaching content.

The results indicated a routine behaviour connected to cleaning practices and teaching regarding different perishable food to differ between teachers. The students’ food safety knowledge and behaviour were reported to be inadequate, especially among boys, and that students might leave school without having learnt even basic food safety principles. Mothers and thereby the home were reported to be an important as well as a trusted source of food safety knowledge, especially among the girls. Boys reported HCS to also be an important as well as trusted source, especially students that rarely or never reported to cook at home. For those students HCS must be seen as particularly valuable. To increase the students’ learning, the teaching needs to be related to the students’ everyday practices and to be more reflective in order for it to be practiced outside the HCS classroom. The teachers’ didactic choices could imply consequences for the students’ food safety learning and a need for more education and updated information for the teachers was noticed.

In summary, the results indicate that risk areas related to all the Four Cs in Food safety (Cooking, Cleaning, Chilling and avoidance of Cross-contamination) need to be highlighted in HCS teaching and for food safety to become a conscious didactic choice for the teachers.  As teaching regarding food safety in HCS seem to differ it needs to be highlighted in HCS policy documents to ensure equivalent food safety learning for all students in compulsory school.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 2017. , p. 81
Series
Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Social Sciences, ISSN 1652-9030 ; 139
Keywords [en]
Learning, Food safety, Education, Didactic, Risk, Food hygiene, Trust, Students', Teachers', Compulsory school
National Category
Social Sciences
Research subject
Food, Nutrition and Dietetics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-317337ISBN: 978-91-554-9849-8 (print)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:uu-317337DiVA, id: diva2:1081338
Public defence
2017-05-05, A1:111a, BMC, Husargatan 3, Uppsala, 13:15 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2017-04-13 Created: 2017-03-13 Last updated: 2017-04-21
List of papers
1. 'Teaching Young Consumers': food safety in home and consumer studies from a teacher's perspective
Open this publication in new window or tab >>'Teaching Young Consumers': food safety in home and consumer studies from a teacher's perspective
2014 (English)In: International Journal of Consumer Studies, ISSN 1470-6423, E-ISSN 1470-6431, Vol. 38, no 4, p. 357-366Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

In Swedish compulsory school, the subject home and consumer studies (HCS) is an opportunity to create conscious consumers for the future. In Sweden, it has been estimated that half a million cases of foodborne infections occur each year, which has an impact on public health. The numbers of foodborne infections are affected by actions connected to the four Cs in food safety: cooking, cleaning, chilling and cross-contamination. As foodborne infections in many cases are suspected to occur in private households, it is of research interest to study food safety teaching in HCS. The aim of this study was to investigate food safety as a part of HCS education and to provide insights regarding self-reported food safety attitude, knowledge and behaviour among HCS teachers in Swedish compulsory schools. A web-based questionnaire was distributed online in April 2012. A total of 335 teachers across the country participated, representing about one in five HCS teachers in Sweden. A majority of the responding teachers stated food safety as an important part of HCS education. The study indicates that food safety teaching can be done in different ways depending on factors such as working years, formal HCS education and daily routines in the classroom. The food safety routines relevant to a specific learning situation might determine the didactic choices, and thus some other important issues within the framework of the four Cs i.e. cold food storage, heating, storing leftovers, best before date, cooling and cross-contamination might be neglected. When it comes to teaching food safety, there is no guarantee that the four Cs in food safety will be covered. Issues connected to cleaning seemed to occur more frequently in HCS teaching rather than the broader aspects of food safety.

Keywords
Education, home economics, food safety, home and consumer studies, risk, Sweden
National Category
Economics and Business
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-231309 (URN)10.1111/ijcs.12108 (DOI)000340240200006 ()
Available from: 2014-09-08 Created: 2014-09-07 Last updated: 2017-12-05Bibliographically approved
2. Self-reported food safety knowledge and behaviour among Home and Consumer Studies students
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Self-reported food safety knowledge and behaviour among Home and Consumer Studies students
2016 (English)In: Food Control, ISSN 0956-7135, E-ISSN 1873-7129, Vol. 67, p. 265-272Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Home and Consumer Studies (HCS) should be a suitable place for food safety education as it includes plenty of practical cooking and is compulsory for all students in the Swedish school system. A study among HCS teachers however reveals shortcomings in food safety teaching. A survey regarding food safety knowledge and behaviour among HCS students in school Year 9 was performed at different schools with a new system to collect questionnaire data. A Student Response System was used at the participating schools. The students were to answer the questions by using a small handheld wireless control, a clicker, in the response program Turning Point 2008. The questionnaire included a total of 26 questions and all questions were shown at PowerPoint slides and read out loud to the students. Some trivial questions were asked at the beginning to ensure the method. A total of 529 students from 18 different schools in different parts of Sweden participated in the survey conducted between September 2013 and January 2014. The survey results were evaluated and analysed using SPSS by performing cross-tabulation and chi-square tests. This study reveals that the students' self-reported food safety knowledge and behaviour are inadequate. Important risk areas need to be highlighted in HCS teaching. Boys reported to be significantly more at risk in terms of food safety regarding the handling of risk foods, reheating and cleaning. Especially for boys who reported seldom cook at home HCS would be extra valuable. This study also indicates the importance of reflection in relation to the hygiene routines which are common in the HCS context. The outcome of this study is that students might leave school without even basic food safety knowledge.

Keywords
food safety, students, home and consumer studies, behvaiour, risk, knowledge
National Category
Social Sciences
Research subject
Food, Nutrition and Dietetics
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-283122 (URN)10.1016/j.foodcont.2016.03.014 (DOI)000375163800034 ()
Projects
Nationella Forskarskolan i Hem och Konsumentkunskap (NFHK)
Available from: 2016-04-11 Created: 2016-04-11 Last updated: 2017-11-30Bibliographically approved
3. Adolescents' sources for food safety knowledge and trust
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Adolescents' sources for food safety knowledge and trust
2018 (English)In: British Food Journal, ISSN 0007-070X, E-ISSN 1758-4108, Vol. 120, no 3, p. 549-562Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate where students in a Swedish compulsory school acquire their knowledge of food safety and how trustworthy they deem them to be. Design/methodology/approach A survey of students' self-reported sources of and trust in food safety knowledge was performed. A student response system was used for data collection, and the students were asked to answer questions presented on a PowerPoint presentation using a small wireless handheld device: a clicker. A questionnaire with 24 questions was used, and the responses were collected at 18 different schools with a total of 529 participants attending school Year 9. Findings Mothers were reported as being the most important source of food safety knowledge (38 per cent), especially among girls, and were also given high credibility (36 per cent). Boys reported trusting home and consumer studies (HCS), fathers and media to a higher extent. Girls reported cooking at home more often but, for all students, it was more common to rarely or never cook at home, which is why HCS teaching can be seen as valuable for many students. HCS teaching needs to be improved in order to raise its credibility. About half of the students (51 per cent) reported to have the highest trust for their source of knowledge. Research limitations/implications The students could only choose one source of knowledge and trust, although it is usual to learn from many different sources. Practical implications HCS teaching needs to get higher credibility among students as a counterweight against other sources. Social implications Educated consumers could influence their health. Originality/value Limited research has been performed on food safety knowledge among adolescents.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2018
Keywords
Adolescents, Food safety, Trust, Knowledge, Home and consumer studies
National Category
Food Science Learning
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-317267 (URN)10.1108/BFJ-03-2017-0159 (DOI)000427495600003 ()
Available from: 2017-03-12 Created: 2017-03-12 Last updated: 2019-06-27Bibliographically approved
4. Food safety teaching influenced by frames, traditions and subjective selections
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Food safety teaching influenced by frames, traditions and subjective selections
2017 (English)In: International Journal of Home Economics, E-ISSN 1999-561X, Vol. 10, no 1, p. 79-88Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

In Sweden, Home and consumer studies (HCS) are mandatory for all students in compulsory school. This means that schools have the possibility to educate all future consumers in Sweden. Qualitative interviews were performed with ten HCS teachers. A thematic content analysis was performed on the transcribed interviews. Three themes were found, which all had the potential to influence the teachers' didactic choices. Frame control includes different frames within the school, for example, budget, lesson time, syllabus, which could imply limitations on the teaching. HCS teaching was characterised by many similarities and routines, which were often performed without reflection, and these were included in the theme Traditional HCS learning environment. The third theme Subjective selections were characterised by the teachers' individual experiences, knowledge and risk perception. The result indicates that important food safety risk areas risked being neglected or minimalised in the HCS teaching due to limiting frames, non-reflective HCS teaching traditions, or the teachers' lack of knowledge and risk awareness. This could have consequences for what is transferred to the students and thereby influence the student's learning process in relation to food safety.

Keywords
food safety, learning, teaching, home and consumer studies, didactic
National Category
Social Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-317269 (URN)
Available from: 2017-03-12 Created: 2017-03-12 Last updated: 2023-11-07Bibliographically approved

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