NUTRITION EDUCATION
AND THE TECHNOLOGY LEARNING AREA

PART C

A FOCUS ON THE TECHNOLOGY LEARNING AREA

 

Why Technology?

The previous discussion has illustrated the links of food and nutrition education with three of the learning areas. It could be argued that if nutrition education is to be located in only one learning area, then the health and physical education learning area would be the most obvious. Certainly the resource "Food and Nutrition in Action" was developed in relation to the "People and Food" strand of the health and physical education learning area. Food and nutrition programs based on the concepts described certainly fit very comfortably in this learning area.

However, the current educational climate in Australia necessitates that we also consider other options. In particular, we need to consider the technology learning area. There are at least two significant reasons why we should consider the importance of the technology learning area when teaching about nutrition.

The need to develop appropriate technologies

 

  

 

 

Firstly, in the technology learning area, students may be involved in devising and producing food products for either the home or commercial use. An application of health promotion concepts into home and commercial food production is important in creating an environment whereby healthy choices are easy choices. Failure to address nutritional issues in food development projects could be seen to be irresponsible in a community where so many deaths and illnesses are diet related. As part of students developing "appropriate" technologies, it is thus necessary that food technology considers the ethical dimensions of creating food products which may or may not be considered health promoting. In this way, the technology learning area has potential to make strong links with the Health Promoting Schools concept by providing a formal curriculum which links with the wider community.

Home economics curriculum paths

 

 

 

 

 

 

Secondly, within the secondary schooling systems, nutrition education falls under the domain of home economics teachers. These teachers are well positioned to deliver effective curriculum in relation to food and nutrition - they have the necessary nutrition knowledge and understandings, their focus is on the wellbeing of individuals and families and thus a health-promotion approach to nutrition education is consistent with their philosophical basis, and they have the expertise to develop practical food-preparation skills seen as essential for effective food and nutrition education. In some schools in some states and territories home economics teachers are appropriately delivering learning experiences which contribute to student outcomes in health and physical education, technology and studies of society and environment. However in some schools in some states and territories home economics is aligned with a single learning area, and sometimes this is the technology learning area. Hence it is essential that a framework for health-promoting food and nutrition education be appropriate to the technology learning area.

LINKING AN EMPOWERMENT APPROACH TO FOOD AND NUTRITION EDUCATION WITH THE TECHNOLOGY LEARNING AREA

Reference back to the key concepts advocated for contemporary food and nutrition education programs reminds us that students should engage in learning experiences which:

  1. enable them to develop autonomy with respect to their personal food-related behaviours; and
  2. enable them to bring about change in the community such that they contribute towards developing a society whereby healthy choices are easy choices.

Further, these learning experiences should be developed with the five key concepts in mind.

REMINDER: KEY CONCEPTS FOR NUTRITION EDUCATION
  1. Health is multi-dimensional and when making healthy food choices, students should aim at maximising positive effects across all dimensions of health.
  2. An empowerment-based learning process enables students to have control (autonomy) over their individual behaviours with respect to food, as well as to take actions which will create an environment supportive of health promoting food choices.There are specific learning and teaching strategies which promote autonomy.
  3. There are specific learning and teaching strategies which promote autonomy.
  4. Students should develop key skills in food selection, food preparation and advocacy for healthy food choices.
  5. Learning should be underpinned by principles of inclusiveness which encourage the full range of students to make health promoting food choices.

So how might this manifest in technology programs? Before answering this challenge, it is timely to remind ourselves of the tenets of technology education.

What is technology education?

 

 

 

 

 

 

According to "A statement on technology for Australian schools", technology education involves "the purposeful application of knowledge, experience and resources to create products and processes that meet human needs" (p.3). The document goes on to describe a key process in the learning area:

"Designing, making and appraising is a process through which students develop ideas and imaginative solutions for learning tasks. They participate in decisions about what to do, why it should be done, how it should be done, and how what has been done might be improved" (p.9).

Clearly, this fundamental premise of technology education is supportive of a health promoting approach to nutrition education - the interests of meeting human needs.

Is technology education empowering? Can it be?

 

 

 

 

 

One potential critical difference between this and empowerment education as advocated in the National Nutrition Education in Schools project is that empowerment education involves students in identifying the problem to be solved, and setting their own goals to overcome the problem. This is a very different set of learning experiences to solving a problem set by someone else, for example a teacher-set design brief. It is worth exploring the fundamentals of empowerment education which informed the National Nutrition Education in Schools project with a view to applying these to technology education.

According to Freire (1972), education means that people are subjects of their own learning, "not empty vessels filled by teachers' knowledge" (Wallerstein,1992;203). He believed that empowerment education involves people in identifying their problems, critically analysing the roots of the problems, and developing strategies to overcome obstacles in achieving their goals (in Wallerstein et al, 1988).

Let us think about that a little more. Identifying problems, critically analysing the roots of the problems, overcoming barriers, achieving goals.

Four basic steps to empowerment education

Freire (1972) proposed that empowerment education encompasses a participatory social orientation to learning involving four basic steps.

Identifying the problem

The first step is "listening", making people co-investigators of their shared problems in their community. Such listening uncovers issues of emotional and social significance to those involved, and these issues become the focus for the curriculum or campaign.

Analysing the root causes of the problem

 

 

 

The second step is developing dialogue about the issues identified in the listening phase. This stage involves the participants in critical thinking or problem-posing to analyse the root cause of the issue of concern. This critical thinking should enable a move towards personal and social actions. Freire believed that when people develop action plans for their own communities, they simultaneously develop a belief that they can make a difference in their own lives and in the lives of those around them (Wallerstein, 1992:204). As Wallerstein stated "Empowerment therefore evolves from the interaction of reflection and action, or praxis, that can transform social conditions" (p.204).

Arriving at group goals and analysing the factors impacting on them

The third step requires facilitators to be effective problem posers and questioners to enable participants to arrive at group goals and an analysis of the societal forces impacting on those goals. As people recognise that they are not alone in their problems, they feel less isolated, more empowered.

Action

 

The final step of the process is the action stage, as determined by the group as a means of achieving their goals.

Summarising empowerment education

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wallerstein (1992) summarised this as:

an empowerment education approach would always engage people through a group dialogue process in identifying their problems; in critically assessing the social, historical, and cultural roots of their problems; and in developing action strategies to change their personal and social lives (1992:203).

Labonte (1990:65) summarised the total process as: "It begins with the personal experiences of learners, builds towards a "critical consciousness" of the deeper structural levels of inequalities these experiences illustrate, and promotes collective action as an outcome of a process of reflection, action, further reflection".

In interpreting Freire's work, Wallerstein (1988) claimed that through community participation, people develop new beliefs in their ability to influence personal and social spheres by targeting personal, group and structural change.

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