Change & Maintaining Change in School Cafeterias: Economic and Behavioral-Economic Approaches to Increasing Fruit and Vegetable Consumption

Developing a daily habit of consuming fruits and vegetables (FV) in children is an important public-health goal. Eating habits acquired in childhood are predictive of adolescent and adult dietary patterns. Thus, healthy eating patterns developed early in life can protect the individual against a number of costly health deficits and may reduce the prevalence of obesity. At present, children in the United States (US) under-consume FV despite having access to them through the National School Lunch Program. Because access is an obstacle to developing healthy eating habits, particularly in low-income households, targeting children’s FV consumption in schools has the advantage of near-universal FV availability among more than 30 million US children. This chapter reviews economic and behavioral-economic approaches to increasing FV consumption in schools. Inclusion criteria include objective measurement of FV consumption (e.g., plate waste measures) and minimal demand characteristics. Simple but effective interventions include (a) increasing the variety of vegetables served, (b) serving sliced instead of whole fruits, (c) scheduling lunch after recess, and (d) giving children at least 25 minutes to eat. Improving the taste of FV and short-term incentivizing consumption of gradually increasing amounts can produce large increases in consumption of these foods. Low-cost game-based incentive program may increase the practicality of the latter strategy

The Sastras of Teacher Education in South Asia: Conclusion

This is the second volume of our South Asia Education Policy) Research and Practice book series. In our first volume (Kidwai, Iyengar, Witenstein, Byker, & Setty, 2017), we examined how stakeholders across South Asia implement and enact Participatory Action Research (PAR). Our first volume included the assertion that PAR empowers stakeholders- especially in the field of education-to take action through a participatory method of research (Byker, 2017). Yet, we also echoed Robin McTaggart\u27s (1991) caveat of the dilution of PAR vis-a-vis a disconnect between authentic participation in the community and its impact on practice. McTaggart (1991) explained that PAR means sharing in the way that research is conceptualized, practiced, and brought to bear out on the life-world. PAR is also about ownership-the responsible agency in the production of knowledge and improvement of practice (p. 171). We concluded our first volume with the statement that PAR is the construction of knowledge by the community in service to the community. Fittingly, the purposes for teacher education are supplanted in this constructivist notion of knowledge by the community in service to the community. At first glance, this second volume may seem to only share cursory connections with the first volume. However, we argue that teacher education- as an institution-is constructed in service to the larger community. Such service is embedded in teacher practice and often reflects highly participatory forms of agency. Indeed, educators are and can be responsible agents in producing knowledge to improve their practice (Britzman, 2012; Byker, 2013, 2014a, 2015, 2016; Koirala-Azad & Fuentes, 2010, McTaggart, 1991). Yet, the impact of teachers\u27 practice and agency-at both the macrolevel and microlevel-are challenging to clearly quantify. Naik (1975) termed this challenge the elusive triangle (p. 3) of providing equality within a high quality education system, which is accessible to a large quantity of learners. Probing the social context of teacher education also contributes to the elusiveness. The challenge requires dissecting how teacher practice is embedded in the economic, political, sociocultural, and sociohistorical milieu of a place (Byker, 2014b; Byker & Banerjee, 2016; Freire, 1970, 1994; Iyengar, Witenstein, & Byker, 2014; Kumar, 1991, 2005). Krishna Kumar (2005) wrote about how the contextual details of a place-including the historical legacies shape a school and a teacher\u27s everyday reality. He further explained that such context should sensitize teachers and shape their practice and assessment of children (Kumar, 2005, p. 14). Lave and Wenger (1991) explained how the contextual milieu encompasses learning as a social process, which becomes embedded within the culture, norms, and practices of a community. Framed as such, the volume provides a descriptive representation of the challenges, innovations, and outcomes of teacher education across the diverse contexts that comprise South Asia.https://ecommons.udayton.edu/books/1061/thumbnail.jp