Making sense of school food practices: how families and schools experience the family-school interface around food and eating
Sarah Macdonald (DECIPHer)
10.30, Tuesday 9 July. Millennium Lounge, level 5
Efforts to facilitate children’s dietary health improvement have indicated the potential of interventions which link families and schools. Attempts to date have been undermined by ineffective linking mechanisms and a lack of understanding of the complexity of family life. In response to these challenges this PhD study is guided by a collective lifestyles framework which focuses on practices (rather than behaviours), agency (the power people have to change) and context (relationships with others, everyday activities and different settings) (Frohlich, Corin et al. 2001; Delormier, Frohlich et al. 2009).
Using the diary-interview approach (Zimmerman and Wieder 1977; Alaszewski 2006) accounts from eleven families in South Wales illustrate how families make sense of school food provision and school healthy eating activities in the context of their own daily food practices, and in relation to the tacit meanings behind these practices.
This presentation focuses on the messy nature of family-school relations. This includes exploring the connections and discontinuities between families and schools in terms of practices, priorities and contexts. Conclusions relate to moving beyond the two dimensions of power and resistance in order for links between families and schools to be more effective and meaningful.
Using the diary-interview approach (Zimmerman and Wieder 1977; Alaszewski 2006) accounts from eleven families in South Wales illustrate how families make sense of school food provision and school healthy eating activities in the context of their own daily food practices, and in relation to the tacit meanings behind these practices.
This presentation focuses on the messy nature of family-school relations. This includes exploring the connections and discontinuities between families and schools in terms of practices, priorities and contexts. Conclusions relate to moving beyond the two dimensions of power and resistance in order for links between families and schools to be more effective and meaningful.