Food as an Experience: Getting Out of the Classroom

• In Event: 30882 - Reimagining the Future of Teaching Sociology

Abstract

Research in the scholarship of teaching and learning has demonstrated the benefit of “high-impact practices,” such as experiential and active learning, in college classrooms (Harris, Harris, and Fondren 2015; Wright 2000). This form of inquiry-based learning produces significant educational benefits for students—such as, illuminating concepts in the real-world, strengthening methodological skills, deepening social relationships in the classroom, and preparing students for engagement in post-graduate experiences (Wright 2000). In this paper, I describe how active learning excursions outside of the classroom were able to enhance a new course offering, Sociology of Food at a small, liberal arts university in Southwest Virginia. While the topic of food through a sociological lens could easily be explored through our students’ own experiences, I found it was important to create an infrastructure for my students to have shared experiences of food given financial and transportation barriers. Throughout the semester, students engaged in several field trips to collect observational and interview data to illuminate concepts in the fields of cultural consumption and production—such as, cultural capital, authenticity, impression management, food insecurity, gendered division of labor, and food systems. Students also created two community-based service-learning experiences that allowed them to engage with local community members and food insecurity organizations to host a food distribution event and hands-on experience in preparing food to distribute with a local mutual aid organization. While these opportunities were made possible through a couple of grants for experimental pedagogy, I will offer suggestions for how to scale the excursions to smaller scale experiential learning opportunities—such as, analyzing food menus and creating a shopping list and menu for a family receiving SNAP benefits. This paper will conclude with an analysis of students’ learning and engagement, as well as challenges to experiential learning in experiences outside of the classroom.

Author

• Katherine Everhart, The University of Virginia's College at Wise