2019 Volume 26 Issue 3 Pages 128-143
An interdisciplinary literature review was conducted to articulate the achievements and challenges of food education research. The eligible articles (n=325), which included the keyword, “shokuiku” (food education in Japanese), were identified from the e-databases. First, its disciplinary distribution was delineated, demonstrating the relative dominancy of home-economics and medical sciences over other social sciences and humanities. Second, the research trend in agricultural economics was particularly investigated, and its achievements were articulated around three research themes (concepts and definitions, promotion systems and impact evaluation). However, several challenges were left unresolved, particularly the nutritionistic, neo-liberal, nationalistic and gendered ideologies internalized in the current food education. Third, the relevant disciplines were explored, identifying several useful theoretical discussions in social sciences and humanities for the abovementioned challenges, while also confirming that these problems were not fully addressed in the most dominant home-economics. This review could inform a future “inter-disciplinary” discussion on food education.
