Food literacy education in Manitoba, Canada and Victoria, Australia: a comparative pilot study.

Home Economics Food and Nutrition (HEFN) courses offered through schools have the potential to provide youth with food literacy (knowledge, attitudes and skills) to manage in the contemporary food environment. Little is known, however, about the capacity of current HEFN programs to foster food literacy. While the existence of such courses varies between schools, regions and countries, many students in the province of Manitoba, Canada and the state of Victoria, Australia are enrolled in HEFN programs in grades 7 and 8 (students aged 11-13 years). This study sought to explore the feasibility of HEFN programs to support the development of food literacy competencies in Manitoba and Victoria through curricula document reviews and qualitative interviews with home economics teachers. Curricular mapping compared the Manitoban Specific Learning Outcomes (SLOs) and Victorian Content Description Codes (CDCs) from curricula documents with a framework of food literacy competencies for youth (Slater, Falkenberg, Rutherford, & Colatruglio, 2018). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight teachers. Curriculum mapping revealed that not all food literacy competencies were present in curricular documents. The interviews showed that teachers mainly focused on developing functional food literacy competencies, while higher-ordered competencies, such as the relational and systems competencies, were less obvious. The discussion considers four areas in which to improve the development of food literacy competencies: (1) curricular structure and content; (2) teacher pedagogy and training; (3) teacher resources for supporting programming; and (4) time allocated to HEFN programs. Unless students receive HEFN in higher years, their food literacy competencies established in grades 7 and 8 may not be sufficient for healthy living in adulthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]