At a time of climate and ecological emergency, children are faced with a multitude of complex, interconnected choices through which they navigate. The introduction of a new Curriculum for Wales in 2022 offers opportunities for schools to engage directly with such choices, as one of its core ‘purposes’ is to support children to become ‘ethical, informed citizens,’ who can ‘show their commitment to the sustainability of the planet’ (Welsh Government, 2020). Our project looked at how primary age children make sense of often contradictory claims about different sources of protein and their role in future food provisioning. We used this as a route to thinking about the role of schools in enabling ethical and sustainable citizenship.
Over the past 20 years concerns have grown globally about how to reduce the environmental impacts of the food system. Food production is often framed by widespread anxieties in the media (such as animal welfare, possible contamination, public health risks), as well as specific concerns relating to access of food due to climate change (for instance limited harvests due to drought, flood and unpredictable seasons.) Much food education relates to cooking or healthy diets (Owen-Jackson & Rutland, 2016).Wales’s new curriculum has the potential to delve further into issues raised by the changing food system, particularly through enabling learners to:
- think in ways that critically, ethically and creatively consider different environmental issues
- develop and make informed decisions about these contexts and issues
- begin to establish a commitment (whether individually or as part of a collective) to mitigate environmental degradation.
