What are the missing ingredients in France’s Approach to Food-Education? A Qualitative Case Study of Food Literacy Promotion Across French Elementary-School Curricula.
(2026) SGED10 20261Human Geography
Department of Human Geography
- Abstract
- (1) Background: Food education has gradually emerged in schools as a transformative lever toaddress public health issues and foster the transformation of our contemporary food systems. In France, food education was officially integrated into the elementary education framework in 2014 andhas recently regained traction with the adoption of a new food-education pilot law in January 2026.(2) Aims and Methodology: Through a document analysis, this dissertation examines how and towhat extent food literacy is addressed across French elementary curricula. Curricula were analysedthrough a deductive approach using a two-step sequential procedure to (a) assess the framing and thecompetencies being addressed and (b) provide granular insights on the... (More)
- (1) Background: Food education has gradually emerged in schools as a transformative lever toaddress public health issues and foster the transformation of our contemporary food systems. In France, food education was officially integrated into the elementary education framework in 2014 andhas recently regained traction with the adoption of a new food-education pilot law in January 2026.(2) Aims and Methodology: Through a document analysis, this dissertation examines how and towhat extent food literacy is addressed across French elementary curricula. Curricula were analysedthrough a deductive approach using a two-step sequential procedure to (a) assess the framing and thecompetencies being addressed and (b) provide granular insights on the current gaps and opportunitiesfor food-education strengthening. (3) Main findings: The analysis suggested that elementary schoolcurricula were addressing food literacy through a largely implicit and disciplinary-fragmentedapproach. Overall, it was found that current educational frameworks emphasise the acquisition ofnutritional knowledge at the expense of other functional, relational and system competencies. A cleargap was identified in the nature of the competencies being promoted, with an overemphasis on theacquisition of declarative knowledge compared to the development of procedural and skills-basedcompetencies. The assessment matrices further highlighted opportunities to strengthen food educationby identifying four levels of food-literacy integration across existing curricula. (4) Research Limitations: Focusing exclusively on the curricula-level, findings were limited considering the fewand scattered explicit mentions of food-related topics across the selected documents. Further researchis needed to better understand how food literacy may be addressed within educational settings duringnon-instructional time. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9232123
- author
- Grail, Zoé LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- SGED10 20261
- year
- 2026
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- Food-Literacy, Elementary, Curriculum, Food-Education, France
- language
- English
- id
- 9232123
- date added to LUP
- 2026-06-24 10:39:03
- date last changed
- 2026-06-24 10:39:03
@misc{9232123,
abstract = {{(1) Background: Food education has gradually emerged in schools as a transformative lever toaddress public health issues and foster the transformation of our contemporary food systems. In France, food education was officially integrated into the elementary education framework in 2014 andhas recently regained traction with the adoption of a new food-education pilot law in January 2026.(2) Aims and Methodology: Through a document analysis, this dissertation examines how and towhat extent food literacy is addressed across French elementary curricula. Curricula were analysedthrough a deductive approach using a two-step sequential procedure to (a) assess the framing and thecompetencies being addressed and (b) provide granular insights on the current gaps and opportunitiesfor food-education strengthening. (3) Main findings: The analysis suggested that elementary schoolcurricula were addressing food literacy through a largely implicit and disciplinary-fragmentedapproach. Overall, it was found that current educational frameworks emphasise the acquisition ofnutritional knowledge at the expense of other functional, relational and system competencies. A cleargap was identified in the nature of the competencies being promoted, with an overemphasis on theacquisition of declarative knowledge compared to the development of procedural and skills-basedcompetencies. The assessment matrices further highlighted opportunities to strengthen food educationby identifying four levels of food-literacy integration across existing curricula. (4) Research Limitations: Focusing exclusively on the curricula-level, findings were limited considering the fewand scattered explicit mentions of food-related topics across the selected documents. Further researchis needed to better understand how food literacy may be addressed within educational settings duringnon-instructional time.}},
author = {{Grail, Zoé}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{What are the missing ingredients in France’s Approach to Food-Education? A Qualitative Case Study of Food Literacy Promotion Across French Elementary-School Curricula.}},
year = {{2026}},
}