Cultivating Empathy towards Cultural Diversity of Food

Abstract
Cultivating Empathy Towards Cultural Diversity of Food

Jesper Ravn Hansen, assistant professor på Professionshøjskolen Absalon
Rikke Jull Olsen, assistant professor på Københavns Professionshøjskole


Background
In 2022, the “Akademi for Madkundskabsdidaktik" (loosely translated to “Academy for didactics of Food Knowledge") published a research report “Food Diversity in Food Knowledge (Danish home economics)”, that concluded that focus on diversity of food should not be neglected in class, and thus investigating teachers’ didactical arguments and narratives in cultivating empathy towards food diversity is relevant.

Aims
The study aims to investigate how teachers who teach the elective subject in Food Knowledge (home economics) at Danish secondary schools justify and apply different academic content in relation to everyday meals, and what characterizes their teaching when they consider it as a resource and as a contribution to an empathetic and diverse food culture.

Method
The study is based on eight semi-structured interpretive interviews, conducted on 10 teachers throughout the regions of Zealand and the Capital. The interviews were conducted via zoom, recorded and transcripted by an AI-transcriptor while listening to the interviews and correcting minor errors. Then, the transcriptions were read several times and searched for narratives, didactical strategies and arguments in accordance with the research question and the theoretical scaffolding through an inductive interpretation and categorization process. The coded categories of meaning were listed, to present the teachers' narratives, didactical strategies and arguments.

Expected results
Thus far, the analysis of the categories and found strategies have shown, that the teachers argued for: 1) observable criterias for success, 2) criterias for choosing certain dishes as academic content, 3) purpose of presenting students to food that are outside their taste culture, 4) proactive didactical strategies, and 5) reactive didactical strategies and non-strategies. In each category of meaning, the study found 3-6 different under-categories, that is further explored in the study and backed up by citations and the theoretical scaffold.