Mat og sosiale forskjeller i barnehagen

Abstract

The meal in the kindergarten is a unique social arena. You can easily communicate with the children and the children can also develop different skills. By letting the children try to make basic foods, they develop fine motor skills, independence, and a sense of taste- and smell. In this assignment we want to know how the kindergarten teachers are aware of the pedagogical aspect around the meal and cooking activities. In addition to this, we want to find out if and how this can help equalize social differences. We used the qualitative methods of interview, observation and mapping form to get our answers. At first, we contacted four kindergartens about the interview, but only two of them replied. For our mapping form, we got answers from three kindergartens. The observation was from one of the kindergartners we interviewed, which means one of us already has a relation with this kindergarten. Before the interviews, we made a interview-guide and sent out a form of consent, where we asked for permission to interview them. We also specified that all information related to the kindergarten would be anonymous. No information in this assignment can be traced back to the kindergartens. During the interviews, we found that there is a big difference from when the kindergarten serves lunch, compared to when the children bring their own lunch. The social differences were greatly reduced when the kindergarten served lunch. The teachers' attitudes and behaviour around food has a big impact on children's appreciation of food. They do however find it difficult to include the children in cooking activities and the budget is an important factor here. When the pedagogues talk about social differences, they mention the socio economic status of the parents and emphasize differences in health