Children's Visual Representations of Food and Meal Time: Towards an Understanding of Nutrition and Educational Practices

Within the broad perspective of school and social exclusion, this article pays attention to an important factor of exclusion: overweight and obesity in primary school children. An interdisciplinary research was conducted and aimed at the study of social representations and practices surrounding food which primary school children, their parents and their teachers hold. This article proposes, firstly, an analysis of drawings produced by the children. Most of them represented dinner time as a social event when the family gathers together. It is pictured as a pleasant and joyful moment of the day, in settings of people standing close to one another or sitting around a table. While concrete references to the act of eating are present, it is the spirit of family reunion that predominates. Secondly, the article will clarify the perspectives teachers have regarding their role in educating for healthy food habits. Holding a prevention perspective, the conclusion will stress the importance of partnerships between parents and schools that should be enacted. Joint interventions should be planned for.