The role of teachers during school lunch at lower secondary level in Germany (ISCED-97-Level 2 / Sekundarstufe 1)

Peer-reviewed / Manuscript (original contribution) received: July 29, 2019 / Revision accepted: November 7, 2019

The role of teachers during school lunch at lower secondary level in Germany (ISCED-97-Level 2 / Sekundarstufe 1)

Baseline situation and research question

With whole-day schools becoming more common across Germany thanks to the initiative of the German Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs [1], there is now an increased need for lunch to be provided to pupils who are in school all day. Various measures have improved the quality of the meals provided, with the standards of the German Nutrition Society being used as the guiding principles behind the improvements [2–4]. It has also become clear that lunch at school represents an opportunity to further the nutritional education of adolescents. The main aims of this approach are to promote a diet that is adapted to individual needs and to build a food culture around meals [2].

Here, school lunch is primarily considered an opportunity to implement nutrition education measures that take an informal pedagogical approach [5]. Though the approach is informal, people (stakeholders) are still required to implement it. Non-school staff are particularly important for implementation. These staff may be paid by the authority responsible for the school (city, local authority or private school authority). Their roles may include preparation and distribution of the meals as well as monitoring during meals. Alternatively, the school authority may outsource these roles to commercial providers, such as caterers. Furthermore, the Principal has a key role to play since they are responsible for monitoring the school as a whole and are also responsible for all internal school affairs. Staff involved in social education are also involved in school lunch, as are the pupils, of course. Teachers are involved in school lunch to varying degrees. The explorative research project “PEERS” (PädagogischE VERpflegungskonzepte an Schulen [in English: Pedagogical Catering Concepts in Schools]) targets the aforementioned stakeholder groups and their roles in nutrition education during school lunches.

This project addresses the question: What are the interpretations of the roles of different groups or stakeholders with regard to nutrition education in the context of meals at educational institutions? This article focuses on a selection of interpretations of the role of the teacher during school lunch, which is to say that the article asks: what role interpretations are associated with the actions of teachers in the setting of school lunches at lower secondary level (Sekundarstufe 1) with regard to nutrition education?

Abstract

School lunches are an opportunity for nutrition education and food culture education. Staff have an important role to play here. Findings from various studies indicate problems with the (nutritional) pedagogical behavior and actions of the staff. This article presents stakeholder interpretations of the actions of teachers in terms of nutrition education during school lunch at lower secondary level on the basis of an exploratory study in which qualitative interviews were conducted with persons belonging to different stakeholder groups in the school catering setting (school management, teachers, pupils, school authority staff). Taking a (nutritional) pedagogy and professional teaching theory perspective, this article argues for the strengthening of the provision of pedagogically competent guidance during school meals—with the support of teachers if necessary—in order to make use of (nutritional) pedagogical opportunities.

Keywords: school meals, nutrition education, whole-day school, teachers, qualitative research

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