Teaching Taste for Sustainable Development in Home Economics Education: International Federation for Home Economics World Congress

Introduction In Denmark and in other countries, recent years have seen a ‘turn’ in Home Economics Education in compulsory school. Previously, the focus was on practical skills, health and nutrition. Today, there is more focus on taste as a quality of food and meals, and on sustainability and health as more than something bodily or nutritional. This symposium focuses on taste and sustainable development, which will be explored and discussed. The symposium is based on Wistoft, K. & Qvortrup, L. (2019): Teaching Taste, and the panel will include short presentations by Karen Wistoft (the seven dimensions of the system of taste), Lars Qvortrup (knowledge forms and forms of argument related to the dimensions of taste) and Jacob Christensen (empirical examples and research findings of teaching taste for sustainable development). Other contributions are welcome. Methods The research background is a combination of theoretical and empirical approaches, including taste philosophy, systems theory, didactics and empirical studies with a focus on effectiveness research. Findings - The theoretical findings include: the development of a systematic model of taste dimensions that can be directly translated into a Home Economic Education curriculum - students’ understanding of the differentiation of knowledge forms related to different taste dimensions with a particular focus on the importance of sustainable development The empirical findings demonstrate that teaching taste is an effective didactic approach, which all students can benefit from in achieving learning objectives. Conclusions Home Economics Education with a focus on taste has significant positive effects on the inclusion of students with different socio-economic background, on the understanding of taste as a broad cultural phenomenon, on the ability to use different forms of argument for different taste dimensions, and – not least – on students’ understanding of sustainable development as an integrated element in all parts of the food chain.