The recipe literacy concept : capturing important aspects of learning how to cook in school

Abstract

Introduction In Sweden, the school subject Home Economics (HE) is a potential context for children to learn how to cook and to master artefacts in the cooking practice. The learning process entails a number of events that can be coupled to the children themselves, to the teachers and to various learning tools, like the recipes. Aim The aim of this study is to investigate various aspects of the process that occur when children with mild intellectual disabilities (ID) learn how to cook in the subject of Home Economics. Methods Data was collected using two different methods; firstly, using an ethnographic inspired design, sixteen accompanying observations were implemented at lessons in HE. The observations were carried out in kitchen classroom settings where teaching and learning about cooking took place. The field notes were thematically analyzed. Secondly, in total 22 qualitative interviews with HE teachers of students with mild ID were conducted. The transcripts were analyzed thematically using the sociocultural approach on learning and knowledge as a theoretical framework. Result The findings reveal both that recipes are central artefacts during the cooking lessons and that the students have various difficulties using the recipes. Regarding the teachers, it was found that the skills that they emphasized in relation to learning how to cook included mastering the language of cooking, measuring and following recipes. Conclusion The results provide an insight into cooking lessons in HE in schools, not only regarding the focus that teachers give to cooking skills, but also to how cooking skills can be understood on a theoretical level. Attention was drawn to the complex set of knowledge needed to be able to use and understand a recipe in order to learn how to cook. We therefore suggest that the knowledge needed to make use of a recipe can be conceptualized in the novel concept of recipe literacy.