Creating a health and sustainability nexus in food education: designing third spaces in teacher education.
Elsden-Clifton, Jennifer ; Futter-Puati, Debi
Increasingly, schools are seen as a convenient site for food
education. Teachers are seen as the key to change in schools for
achieving a sustainable society (Ferreira, Ryan, & Tilbury, 2007),
as well as being 'called upon as a major resource in the crusade of
improving the health of young people, such as addressing childhood
obesity' (Welch & Wright, 2011, p. 199). However,
teachers' abilities to make any impact on these aims are dependent
on their preparation to address food-related issues; some of these
skills and knowledge they gain from their pre-service teacher education
(Fahlman, McCaughtry, Martin, & Shen, 2011). The importance of
teacher education on future practice was a key finding of research by
Byrne et al. (2012), who noted that 'teachers receiving training
about health education are more likely to develop a positive attitude
about their role as health promoters and as a result become more
involved in health education' (p. 526). It has also been suggested
that pre-service teachers need to be prepared to teach from an education
for sustainability (EfS) framework to prepare their students for a
sustainable future (Fien, 2001; Gough, 2011). In particular, there is a
need to develop and promote a range a curriculum and teaching approaches
in teacher education that are 'committed, ethical and
effective' in terms of empowering young people to create and
maintain sustainable lives (Fien, 2001, p. 4).
Currently in Australia there is no guarantee (or mandate) that
pre-service teachers are taught food education within their university
degree. To date, there have been no detailed studies that measure the
extent, focus, and content of food studies provided by teacher education
programs in Australia. This, in part, stems from a larger issue around
the noticeable gap internationally of targeted research into health
education in teacher education generally (a few exceptions include Byrne
et al., 2012; Flaschberger, 2013; Jourdan, Samdal, Diagne, &
Carvalho, 2008; Paakkari, Tynjala, & Kannas, 2010; Paakkari &
Valimaa, 2013; Welch & Wright, 2011). As noted by Leahy and McCuaig
(2014): '... given the significance of health and young people, and
the circulating policy rhetoric, it seems almost incomprehensible that
the education of future health teachers has received very little
attention in the literature' (p. 221).
There has been more research into environmental education and EfS
in teacher education than into food education (e.g., Beckford &
Pandya, 2008; Cutter-Mackenzie & Tilbury, 2002; Ferreira et al.,
2007; Gough, 2009; Tilbury, Coleman, & Garlick, 2005). The findings
from this research draw a number of parallels to the literature of
health education in teacher education. For instance, EfS shares with
health education a wealth of literature that criticises its lower status
and representation in teacher education (Gough, 2009; Miles, Harrison,
& Cutter-Mackenzie, 2006; Wilson, 2012). Similarly to health
education, there has also been the call for more research into the
practices of EfS in teacher education if there is to be any improvement
in future teachers' competence for implementing EfS in schools
(Ferreira et al., 2007; Kennelly, Taylor, & Serow, 2012). Despite
the importance of health education (key to improving the health status
of our community) and EfS (key to creating a more sustainable future),
it appears they share some common ground in terms of: having a
marginalised presence within teacher education; having problematic, ad
hoc or limited successes in schools and universities; being
underrepresented in the literature in relation to the teaching
philosophies and knowledge within teacher education. This article
attempts to contribute to these fields by providing an overview of a
small case study of a reconceptualised third space approach to food
education in teacher education. The redesign encouraged a critical
health approach to food education and was underpinned by a
sustainability focus.
This case study stems from a larger research project that
investigated health education in teacher education more generally. This
research draws upon data from courserelated documents from a Bachelor of
Education (Primary) course, Promoting Health Education; in particular,
the course guides, tutorial notes, online resources and teacher
educators'/authors' reflections from the week we taught food
education. This article also draws on an anonymous reflective survey
completed by pre-service teachers after each class, which recorded their
reactions to, and perceptions of, teaching and learning. These data
sources are used to explore some of the complexities of the third space
design and consider what this may mean for future food curriculum within
both health and sustainability fields.
Food Education and Sustainability Principles
Increasingly, food education is part of the required curriculum in
schools. This is evidenced through the inclusion of food and nutrition
within curriculum frameworks nationally (Australian Curriculum and
Assessment Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2014). There is some evidence
that school-based nutrition programs have the potential to change the
food habits of young people (Fahlman, Dake, McCaughtry, & Martin,
2008; Gibbs et al., 2013). However, there is a growing body of research
that highlights there is a clear dominance of one particular approach to
food education that focuses on nutritional knowledge and monitoring food
choices (Currie, 2013).
One of the main criticisms aimed at current food pedagogy is that
it conflates food with medicine and science, where food is 'valued
for its contribution to preventing disease, or vilified for its
contribution to ill-health' (Welch, McMahon, & Wright, 2013, p.
716). According to the literature, a consequence of a
medical/scientific/risk dialogue is that it limits space for teaching
about pleasure discourses, alternative knowledges of food and eating,
and edits out the potential positive social and cultural relationships
with food (Cliff & Wright, 2010; Welch et al., 2013). Although these
food education programs are well intended, O'Dea (2005) draws our
attention to the potential of unsupportive explicit or implicit messages
that teachers may deliver during food education. O'Dea (2005)
recommends the principle of 'first, do no harm' while teaching
food education, and outlines that often food education programs
reinforce a narrative that does not fully consider all of the dimensions
of health (mental, social, and spiritual health) and indeed can be
harmful to these dimensions. O'Dea (2005) stresses that teachers
can inadvertently suggest diet or weight-loss techniques, promote
nutrition misinformation, reinforce stereotypes (e.g., obese as
gluttonous, lazy, and weak with no selfcontrol), stigmatise and blame
the victim, or position obesity as a medicalised illness through this
approach.
There have also been calls for more breadth and depth when teachers
talk about food with young people, such as a sustainability focus. In
part, this has been influenced by the health sustainability nexus beyond
the classroom. For instance, the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion
(WHO, 1986) mandated a socio-ecological approach to health and
recognised that 'political, economic, social, cultural,
environmental, behavioural and biological factors can all favour health
or be harmful to it' (p. 3). As a result, there has been a push for
teachers to focus on food sustainability issues, including increasing
the awareness of impact of food choices (e.g., local, seasonal, organic,
fair trade, and higher animal welfare food), food security and food
mileage. This has also given rise to a growth in 'kitchen
gardens' in schools (Jones et al., 2012; Libman, 2007; Ozer, 2007;
Weaver-Hightower, 2011; Williams & Brown, 2012) and ignited debates
around 'school food' (Morgan & Sonnino, 2013; Pike &
Leary, 2012). Given this pressure for schools to teach food education
and the associated pedagogical implications, it is important to research
the ways in which pre-service teachers are prepared to face this complex
and multidisciplinary area.
Third Space Theory
This article grapples with the tensions when creating third spaces
within teacher education. The notion of 'third space' is
associated with exploring the space 'in between' two or more
discourses or conceptualisations (Bhabha, 1994, p. 1). A productive way
to explain the third space is by drawing upon Soja's (1996) triad.
In this explanation, the third space is a space where 'everything
comes together' (Soja, 1996, p. 56) by bringing together elements
of first space and second space, but also by extending beyond these
spaces. We have used this notion to conceptualise the health
sustainability nexus we attempted to create in our teaching and
learning. For instance, the first space is associated with a health
perspective of food (traditionally a medical, scientific, healthism,
nutrition approach). We conceptualised the second space as an EfS
perspective. Although there are natural crossovers beyond the classroom,
we felt that these are often marginalised within primary education. The
third space thus 'gives rise to something different, something new
and unrecognisable, a new area of negotiation, meaning and
representation' (Bhabha 1990, p. 211).
Within this framing, the third space is perceived as a space to
build bridges between knowledge, help learners see connections and
contradictions, and bridge competing understandings (Moje et al., 2004).
The third space can also be theorised as a navigational space in which
participants can cross over or draw upon different binaries, discourses
or discursive boundaries, and which enables participants to become more
central to their learning and gain access to alternative knowledge
(Gutierrez, Baquedano-Lopez, & Tejada, 1999).
Within this article, the concept of third space has been adapted to
refer to the possibility of re-imagining (and inhabiting) an alternative
space for food education that bridges health considerations and
sustainability principles. The paper draws upon multiple sources of
information to present a case study that explores the possibility of
third space in food education. Within this case study of one university
class, the main sources of data come from three areas:
Course documentation
The unit/course Promoting Health Education focuses on the place of
health in the primary school curriculum. This 10-week course covers
health issues such as grief, mental health, sexuality, and
relationships, with one week devoted to food and nutrition education;
this equates to 5 hours of preparation for class (reading, video and
online activities, a 2-hour class and an assessment based on food
education). The course is aimed at third-year pre-service teachers in a
4-year Bachelor of Education (Primary) degree in Victoria, Australia. In
their degree they complete one health education course in their third
year (this is not conflated with physical education, which often occurs
in teacher education degrees).
Pre-service teachers
The cohort of pre-service teachers (approximately 180 across six
classes) are preparing to be generalist primary school teachers,
although 23 were specialising in Early Childhood, and a similar number
were specialising in Disability Studies. The pre-service teachers
enrolled in this course were primarily female (86%), 20 to 39 years of
age (mean age of 23) and most were Australian born (89.3%), with English
as their language spoken at home (81.3%).
This case study about food education stemmed from a larger research
project about health in teacher education (ethics granted), but this
article only draws on the component of food education. As we wanted the
student voice to be represented as part of this project, at the end of
each class during the semester, the pre-service teachers completed an
anonymous voluntary self-assessed reflective survey. Approximately 126
(71%) of the pre-service teachers completed this survey after the class
on food education. This survey was primarily based on their attitudes,
reflections, and reactions to their learning and engagement in the
topic.
Teacher educators
The authors were part of the teaching team and played a key role in
the design of the learning experiences. We were interested in ideas
around teaching health education in less traditional ways and the
implications for curriculum development.
Data collated from these sources were analysed using the theory of
third space to address the following questions:
* How might we design a third space approach to food education that
brings together health education and sustainability principles?
* What are the challenges and tensions faced by teacher educators
and pre-service teachers in creating and navigating the health and
sustainability nexus or third space?
Before we discuss the findings of this research, we outline in more
detail the third space food education experience.
Designing Third Spaces in Food Education
In designing this third space, we looked towards how the Australian
Curriculum situated sustainability (ACARA, 2014). As one of the three
cross-curriculum priority areas, it was envisaged that sustainability
would be embedded in all learning areas, including health. On reviewing
the details of the curriculum, it was evident that there were a number
of incidences where sustainability had a presence within the health
learning area. The curriculum elaborations that shape this third space
design include teaching: sustainable practices to improve health and
wellbeing (Years 1 and 2, 8- to 10-year-olds); sustainable practices
such as recycling, composting and energy saving (such as food wastage;
Years 3 and 4, 10- to 12-year-olds); and how to respectfully teach about
how 'food practices differ between families, communities and
cultural groups' through sharing 'food stories' (Years 3
and 4, 10- to 12-yea-olds; ACARA, 2014, n.p.). In creating a third space
in food education, we were mindful of the considerations from both food
and sustainability education spaces. Therefore, before discussing the
actual teaching and learning experiences, it is important to outline our
stance and approach.
Considerations for Food Education From a Health Perspective
The aim of the teaching team was to deliver a more critical
understanding of food education. We were mindful that our teaching
should move away from simplistic approaches to food education and
instead provide opportunities for pre-service teachers to think
differently about food education to ensure they did not reinforce
'healthism' discourses (Leahy, 2009, Welch et al., 2013) and
honoured the 'first do no harm' principle (O'Dea, 2005).
In doing so, there was a focus on: the association of pleasure and fun
with food; challenging the binary of unhealthy and healthy in relation
to food; and questioning a purely medical, nutritional, or physical
model of food education.
Considerations for Food Education From an EfS Perspective
As well as sharing common ground in the literature, there are many
commonalities between critical health education and EfS. Fien (2001)
conceptualised EfS as approaches that 'integrate goals for
conservation, social justice, appropriate development and democracy into
a vision and a mission of personal and social change' (p. 1).
According to Patrick, Capetole, and Nuttman (2012, p. 67) the purpose of
EfS is to challenge young people to 'think about how society can
change its widely held views about social, economic and environmental
constructs'. The key strategies for EfS are similar to the critical
health considerations, including envisioning a 'better future,
critical thinking and reflection, participation in decision making and
systemic thinking' (Patrick et al., 2012, p. 68). As there was some
common ground, and curriculum support, it provided a sound basis to
design a third space. Some sample learning experiences of this nexus
that were designed include:
MasterChef
A number of pre-service teachers had witnessed a food/cooking
demonstration while on placement, but it had been part of a literacy and
numeracy activity (e.g., reading instructions, measuring ingredients,
writing of reviews). Therefore, in class we prepared a no-bake slice and
modelled a discussion of broader food topics, such as: food texture and
taste; food memories around cooking and favourite foods; pleasures
around food/eating; nutrition such as substituting ingredients for
allergy concern; using seasonal/local produce; and sustainability issues
such as origin of ingredients, food mileage, and food wastage.
Shaun the Sheep
Welch et al. (2013) believe that the discourses of risk, medicine,
and weight are 'entwined in and through both school pedagogies and
children's popular culture' (p. 714). To investigate this,
pre-service teachers watched the episode 'Shape up with Shaun'
from the popular animated series Shaun the Sheep, which revolves around
a flock of sheep who live on a farm in Britain. The premise of the
episode was the transformation of'Shirley' from obese (four
times the size of any other sheep in the flock) to the same size as the
rest of the flock or 'normal' weight. In this particular
episode, Shaun, the 'leader', puts Shirley on an exercise and
diet regime. Shirley manages the transformation to a 'normal'
sheep body and is only distinguishable from the others due to the
exercise gear she is wearing (Goleszowski & Sadler, 2007). However,
at the end of the show she is catapulted head first into a pie van and,
after only one binge of 'unhealthy' food, she is once again an
obese sheep. This episode was purposely selected because much of the
episode reinforces many of the stereotypes of obese people in popular
culture (Shirley is characterised as being dumb, eating anything, and
excessively eating unhealthy food). The episode also provided a lens in
which to begin to discuss sustainability issues such as fair trade and
animal welfare foods, as well as ethical and sustainable farming
practices.
After watching this episode, pre-service teachers were encouraged
to formulate fact/fiction statements that could be used as a basis to
critique and interpret the narratives in the episode that they could use
with young people, from farming practices and sustainability to
questioning the 'language of obesity' present in the episode
(Evans, Evans, & Rich, 2003). This was followed up with a
whole-class discussion around whether this suggested school-based
activity using popular culture 'first did no harm?'
Second bite
Pre-service teachers were asked to bring a photograph of the food
in their fridge to class. They then had to create a meal for dinner
using only the contents inside the fridge. This activity was based
around the ideas of food security and sustainability, and named after
the organisation Second bite (http://secondbite.org/), which connects
people with excess fresh food (e.g., restaurants and supermarkets) to
agencies and people in need. The discussion after this activity focused
on topics such as food security, sustainability, nutrition, personal
taste, and branding. The pre-service teachers also considered how this
activity could fall into the monitoring, regulating, and surveillance of
young people (and family) food choices (Evans et al., 2003; Leahy,
2009). For example, discussion questions focused on possible hidden
curriculum messages (and similar activities, such as collating food
diaries, and documenting lunch box contents), socio-economic
considerations, family food and cultural implications.
Give peas a chance
We also felt it was important that one activity presented a
political and critical examination of food. Pre-service teachers
listened to an excerpt from Morris Gleitzman's short story called
'Give Peas a Chance', which is about a young person who goes
on a hunger strike in response to war (Gleitzman, 2008). They then
answered some higher order questions about the connection between hunger
strikes, world politics and the power of food, and how/why/where this
might be integrated into the school curriculum.
Out of the box
This activity, adapted from the resource Focus on Food/Te Arotahi
ki te Kai (New Zealand Ministry of Education, 2008), asked pre-service
teachers to complete an audit and analyse the food-advertising
techniques used during peak children viewing time. In class, this audit
was aggregated and trends emerged that enabled discussion related to
advertising influencing consumer choice and EfS. Drawing upon Skouteris,
Rutherford, Cutter-Mackenzie, and Edwards' (2010) research, the
learning experienced was designed to get pre-service teachers to
consider how they would get their students to unpack the 'consumer
choices that children make and the repercussions of these choices on
their health (physiological and psychological) and the environment'
(p. 35). It also provided a vehicle to discuss both the positives
(Skouteris et al., 2010) and negatives (Russell, Cameron, Socha, &
McNinch, 2014) of recent approaches to obesity prevention through a
sustainability focus.
After these, learning experiences surveys were collected. This data
was analysed through collecting the surveys from each of the six
classes. These were then aggregated per question on a spreadsheet to
look for consistencies across themes as well as responses that
challenged the dominant theme/s. We also examined the themes based on
our research aims of the study. The analysis of themes were first done
independently and then the research team/teaching team met to discuss
similarities and differences in coding, coming to a consensus. Through
the analysis of the data related to this teaching and learning
experience, a pattern emerged and three themes were identified as
significant in terms of future food education implication.
Dominance of First Space
Despite our focus on creating third spaces, much of the pre-service
teachers' reflections tended to focus on the first space of health
perspectives of food. In particular, the dominant healthism discourse
was around obesity in the children's animated series Shaun the
Sheep. Many of our pre-service teachers may never have consciously
thought about, questioned, or considered the implications of the obesity
discourse for young people. They were surprised by how a very childlike
animation could contain such complex messages about food, obesity, and
healthy living. For example, one pre-service teacher commented
'Shaun video--surprised [me] because it's quite wrong
morally--cute though', and another wrote 'I was surprised
about the number of assumptions you can make about healthy
eating/exercise in the Shaun the Sheep video'.
In relation to the focus on 'first do no harm'
(O'Dea, 2005), pre-service teachers expressed thoughts about
explicit and implicit messages about food; for example, 'Thinking
about the message coming across in what you show kids, that is, when
showing Shaun the Sheep--is it a good idea to use an episode such as
this? Why? Why not?' and 'I felt negative messages was [sic]
being sent about obesity and food'. There was a realisation around
the impact (both positive and negative) of food education, as one
pre-service teacher noted that they were surprised that 'health
prevention strategies can have negative instead of positive effects on
students'. We hoped that these sorts of reflections would not
translate to our pre-service teachers being afraid to approach food
education in the future, but rather that it would encourage them to be
critical thinkers in relation to how they approach food education, as
well as the resourcing they choose to use to complement their programs
in the future.
A number of pre-service teachers articulated what this could mean
for the ways in which they might teach food education. They asked
critical questions such as: 'How much information and discussion
can be brought about after watching Shaun the Sheep?'; 'Should
we teach students about the energy in food, for example, calories,
kilojoules?'; 'What is the best way to teach about how to cook
healthy food and portion sizes?'; and whether they 'should or
shouldn't connect food and exercise'. They also began to see
the importance of the idea of being impartial with their students by
'trying not to say what are good or bad [food] choices'. As
these comments show, they struggled with the tension of having a binary
approach to food and how to teach differently.
We felt that this first space dominance may have emerged in this
task, as within their teacher education program there had been very
little space to highlight the minefields when 'talking about health
and weight' (Cliff & Wright, 2010, p. 230). The dominance of
this first space may have also arisen as we purposely problematised the
'healthism' discourse and challenged the language of obesity,
which for some students may have contradicted some of the educational
resources/programs presented to educators as 'truth' in
relation to food education that they may have been exposed to on
placement experiences in schools (Evans et al., 2003).
Challenges Within Second Space
Another theme that emerged in the reflections from pre-service
teachers was around their own relationship with food. However, what the
teaching team found interesting is that many of these reactions emerged
in learning experiences that were more closely aligned with EfS themes
or second space (e.g., sustainable practices such as choosing local
food, growing your own produce and reducing food wastage). For example,
during the class activity Second Bite, pre-service teachers created a
meal from the photo of their fridge contents, and in the MasterChef
activity pre-service teachers prepared a no-bake slice, which is similar
to the learning activities advocated in the 'Kitchen Garden'
concept (Gibbs et al., 2013). Some pre-service teachers found it very
interesting to learn about 'personal food experiences',
'everyone's different food experiences at the dinner table
when they were young', and their peers' 'knowledge in
cooking and healthy eating habits'. For others, the act of
preparing food during the MasterChef activity was illuminating as it
drew attention to their lack of skills in this area, 'because I do
not cook, I was lost when talking about ingredients'.
However, for some pre-service teachers, the focus on food raised
their own issues with food, and a few pre-service teachers revealed
their sometimes unhealthy relationships with food; as one pre-service
teacher noted, this class has 'probably drawn attention to my own
negative relationship with food'. It does raise the question about
those who primarily teach in the second space of EfS and the extent to
which they have been exposed to the theory and literature around
'first do no harm' (Yager & O'Dea, 2009) and what
explicit training to prepare them to address the health concerns of
young people that may arise through cooking and sharing food stories.
What is known from the literature is that how teachers interpret
and implement a food curriculum is complex, because it is shaped by a
multitude of factors, including: confidence; level of knowledge; and
their own values and beliefs about food, eating, weight and nutrition
(Burrows & McCormack, 2012). Given that the Australian curriculum
now encourages 'sharing food stories' (ACARA, 2014), it
highlighted to us the need for another look at how we discuss the
concept of the 'teacher as eater' and how notions of personal
beliefs and relationships to food may influence their future pedagogy
and curriculum choices. It suggests that pre-service teachers need
space, time and support to 'peel back the layers' of their
values and beliefs around food and to consider how this would shape
their pedagogical practices (Ovens & Tinning, 2009, p. 1130).
As the reflections suggest, this may be a less complex task for the
majority of preservice teachers. However, for a small number of
pre-service teachers, this may mean addressing underlying issues such as
'poor body image, disordered eating and exercise attitudes and
behaviors' (Yager & O'Dea, 2009, p. 481) to ensure that
when they teach about food--whether that be from a sustainability
perspective, health/medical view or a third space--that it is done in
ways that promote wellness.
Desirability of Third Spaces
While designing third spaces through destabilising, challenging and
reimagining food education, the teaching team felt some tensions. In
acknowledging this, it raised some interesting dilemmas and questions,
such as: Do we want third spaces? What are some of the risks and
benefits for learners interacting within third spaces? Can third spaces
create risks for teachers, and if so how do we ensure pre-service
teachers have thought through possible scenarios and how they might
manage these? How can educators scaffold the third space experience? Who
is valued in third space constructs? Are we ready for third spaces?
During this learning experience, the teaching team wondered if we
weren't doing a disservice to both health education and EfS; we
wondered if we were able to achieve deep stages of learning of either
discipline, especially within the time constraints of a university
system. Gough (2002) made the call that both science educators and
environmental educators need to rethink their relationship to move
forward. We would argue that, given the sustainability curriculum
priority and the common grounds these fields share (inside and outside
the education field), there is a similar need to rethink the health and
sustainability relationship to ensure that there is not a superficial
understanding of health or EfS content provided. This tension was felt
by the teaching team when teaching this third space construct. We would
argue that it is something that future projects should explicitly
examine in regards to pre-service teachers' views about the
combination of EfS and food education.
From our perspective, these two approaches of critical health
education and EfS shared common ground, which made designing third
spaces from a teaching and learning perspective feasible and supported
by curriculum (ACARA, 2014). However, given that the literature
signalled that both health and sustainability already occupy a
marginalised space in schools in part, we wonder how strong this nexus
would be in classrooms in primary schools.
Conclusion
This article attempted to capture a rethink of food education and
the ways in which the proposed health and sustainability nexus advocated
by the curriculum might translate into classroom practice. Drawing upon
the theory of third space, it provided an overview of a case study that
considered curriculum design of food education and teacher
educators' and pre-service teachers' reflections. In this
article we do not seek to make large claims about this small-scale case
study, but rather wish to use it as a way to share practice and open up
further discussion about how we might introduce third spaces that start
to conceptualise the health and sustainability nexus, and to see this
relationship as complex.
While this case study provided some insights into food education
within teacher education and the reflections of those involved in this
space, it also identified the need for more research into how food
studies is taught within teacher education. We would add to the call
that there is a need to research the role and place of food education
within teacher education more broadly. Indeed, this research agenda
could begin to question how, or even if, food studies is present in
teacher education (both implicitly and explicitly), and investigate how
it challenges or reinforces dominant narratives around food, eating, and
obesity and if, or how, it might also meet the proposed sustainability
curriculum priority areas. Similarly, more knowledge is needed around
who is entrusted to deliver a food curriculum in teacher
education--which disciplines 'own' food studies: Where does it
best fit? What values, beliefs, and dispositions do teacher educators
bring to the teaching of food? Does teacher education lead to more
positive health outcomes for young people or could it potentially be
damaging to the health and identity of young people (Evans et al.,
2003)? What areas of food education are compromised, unimaginable, and
marginalised in a health and sustainability third space?
Although this was a small case study, it does provide a snapshot to
consider the way in which food education may be conceptualised in
teacher education. The aim of the teaching team was to ensure that we
modelled a potential third space construct that would align with
curriculum goals that could be implemented in future classrooms. Further
research would be required to see if, or how, successful we were;
although it was clear from the reflections of pre-service teachers that
they were challenged in their thinking about food and beginning to
understand the implications of different pedagogical approaches and what
this might potentially mean for the young people they teach from both a
health and sustainability viewpoint.
Address for correspondence: Dr Jennifer Elsden-Clifton, RMIT
University, PO Box 71, Bundoora 3083, Victoria, Australia. Email:
jennifer.elsden-clifton@rmit.edu.au
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Author Biographies
Jennifer Elsden-Clifton is a Senior Lecturer in Education at RMIT
University in Melbourne, Australia. As an experienced school teacher and
university educator, she teaches and researches in the area of teacher
preparation, in particular, health education, professional issues in
teaching, educational technologies.
Debi Futter-Puati is a Lecturer in Education within the Faculty of
Education Sport and Leisure Studies at Waikato University, Hamilton, New
Zealand. She is currently completing her PhD on Sexuality Education
within the Pacific Island context. Her research and teaching expertise
is within teacher education, health education, Pacific education,
physical activity, family violence prevention, and resiliency/suicide
prevention.
Jennifer Elsden-Clifton (1) & Debi Futter-Puati (2)
(1) RMIT University, Australia
(2) University of Waikato, New Zealand