This paper explores the experience of researching food in schools. Food is personal. It is an ingested symbol of culture, family, tradition, ethnicity… What does this mean as a researcher? How do we navigate food relationships? How is this relationship shaped by the rules of the school? This paper examines how I went about doing food research in…

This paper discusses the use of mapping as part of an ethnographic research project exploring food experiences in primary schools. Whilst the main data collection instrument was participant observation, the project made use of a creative social mapping activity. Towards the end of fieldwork, children were asked to draw maps of the food spaces at…

This paper investigates the production of space and language policy in Ras Al Khaimah, a city in the United Arab Emirates. The paper builds on recent work in socio- and applied linguistics that has made use of sociospatial concepts from human geography. It argues that researchers should not only investigate space as a factor structuring language…

In this article, we make a case for incorporating translanguaging pedagogy into the framework of Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (CSP). Drawing on data from a one-year ethnographic study of an adult ESL program, we show how teachers believed in and attempted to create spaces for translanguaging and CSP but in practice fell short. We conclude that…

Policy makers in the UK are trying to improve school meals, by focusing on eating well. This article explores the way policies are framed by academic performance and health as a reason for providing school lunches. Using Nussbaum's capability approach we argue that the purpose of schooling should be to provide young people with the ability to lead…

This paper examines students' food perspectives in three rapidly diversifying contemporary contexts: a university setting in Kigali, Rwanda where students help to prepare Chinese dumplings; a school garden and canteen in Nairobi, Kenya where students jostle for bowls of beans and rice; and a fast-food restaurant in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where…