Outdoor taste education: Danish perspectives on potentials and challenges for taste education in school gardens and outdoor education

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article explores how taste is integrated in the outdoor educational context of school gardens. The study discusses previous research critical of taste education in general and of school garden cooking programs in particular with an empirical exploration of taste education in the Danish school garden program, Gardens for Bellies. A key finding is that, despite an absence of an explicitly formulated pedagogy of taste, tasting is a central element in triggering students’ involvement in the learning process and students are encouraged, and given autonomy to reflect and make their own taste judgments. The discussion draws on newer theoretical and didactic perspectives on taste education and concludes that a critical, reflective, and systematic approach to taste education can be key to involving students’ perspectives more radically and linking the school garden experience both to the classroom and to wider educational goals.