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Recipes are not only part of today's cooking culture, they are also part of the Swedish syllabus of home economics. The aim of this study was to investigate what kinds of difficulties students with mild intellectual disabilities have using recipes during cooking lessons in home economics. We conducted an ethnographically inspired approach, with a total of 44 h of accompanying observations. Three compulsory schools for students with intellectual disabilities were enrolled in the study, and 37 students and three teachers were included. The socio-cultural theory of learning has been used as a theoretical framework. The findings reveal both that recipes are central artefacts during the cooking lessons and that the students have various difficulties using the recipes. The difficulties vary, and they concern both how the recipes are designed and the purport of the recipes. Difficulties in relation to the design included, for example, the separation of ingredients and instructions in the text and the large amount of information given in both the whole and the parts of the recipes. The difficulties in relation to the purport – that is, the meaning or sense of the recipe – were the ingredients, the kitchen utensils and the knowledge of how to perform a specific task. These difficulties can be considered special in relation to the use of the recipes. We suggest the concept of ‘recipe literacy’ to capture the complex knowledge of using recipes.

The aim of this study was to explore what arithmetical understanding is needed when students with mild intellectual disabilities use recipes during practical cooking lessons in Home Economics. The settings were compulsory schools in Sweden attended by students with intellectual disabilities. Sixteen lessons in Home Economics during which cooking took place were observed. In total, 37 students and three teachers participated. All students had a mild intellectual disability. Their ages varied, but most were between 13 and 14 years old. The sociocultural perspective on learning, combined with a literacy framework, was used as a theoretical foundation for the study. Main findings are that students need an arithmetical understanding of (i) how to interpret numbers, (ii) how to interpret and use units, and (iii) how to compute when using recipes. The knowledge and skills needed to be able to use a recipe are featured in the concept recipe literacy, capturing both theoretical, declarative knowledge and the more practical, procedural knowledge. Recipe literacy can be used to theorize the use of recipes when learning to cook, as in Home Economics.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore which elements of cooking skills Home Economics (HE) teachers in schools for students withmild intellectual disability (ID) consider important for their students to learn.

Design/methodology/approach - In total, 22 qualitative interviews with HE teachers of students with mild ID were conducted. The transcripts were analyzed thematically using the sociocultural approach on learning and knowledge as a theoretical framework.

Findings - The elements of cooking skills that were emphasized included mastering the language of cooking, measuring, following recipes, representing an instrumental and task-centered - knowledge on cooking.

Practical implications - The results of this study provide an insight into cooking lessons in HE in schools, not only regarding the focus that teachers give to cooking skills, but also to how cooking skills can be understood on a theoretical level. This has implications for both regular schools and schools for students with mild IDs since the elements that teachers consider important then guide what the students are given to learn. Teachers should be conscious that the planning of lessons should also be based on the students' specific circumstances and context.

Originality/value - To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that provides knowledge about how HE teachers reason regarding which cooking skills they consider important for students to learn. HE is taught to both children and adolescents, and it is important to investigate teachers' perceptions about the subject and how the teaching is organized, including cooking skills.