‘Food with a purpose’– Home Economics teachers' construction of food and home

Food and home are central issues in the Home Economics curriculum. The aim of the present paper was to explore how Home Economics teachers make sense of and manage being teachers in this particular subject and how they talk about food and home. This was achieved by conducting four focus groups with 25 participants, 23 women and two men, all with experience from working as Home Economics teachers. Participants were recruited from all over Sweden through emails. The data analysis was conducted in three steps and was guided by social constructionist theory. The main findings were the themes of Home Economics as food with a purpose, teachers with a public health commission, the fostering teacher, tangible cooking and the deficient home. The results show that Home Economics is constructed as a site for ‘proper knowledge’ about food in relation to a ‘deficient home’. Food in Home Economics was thus constructed as having a purpose.