Meals, mealtimes and moments for learning: assessment of quality in early childhood education and care services.

Abstract

Objective: Early education and care (ECEC) is part of the everyday life of most children in developed economies, presenting exceptional opportunity to support nutrition and ongoing food preferences. Yet, the degree to which such opportunity is captured in policy-driven assessment and quality ratings of ECEC services is unknown.

Design: Abductive thematic analysis was conducted, guided by key domains of knowledge in nutrition literature and examining identified themes within these domains.

Setting: ECEC services (n 38) in Queensland, Australia.

Participants: Data were a random sample of field notes pertaining to mealtimes and food provision (n 182) collected as evidence to inform quality ratings during assessment visits to ECEC services.

Results: The field notes mapped to three theory-driven domains: provisions, practices and education. Reflecting policy specification, health, hygiene and safety were a key focus, but food quality and quantity were not. Assessors noted the promotion of child autonomy at mealtimes, yet little evidence pertaining to characteristics of educator-child interactions.

Conclusions: Despite evidence that childhood nutrition is crucial for optimal development and learning, the quality and quantity of food are not directly assessed. Relationships and interactions at mealtimes provide an environment ideal for promoting learning and development, yet the policy guiding inspection and assessment of ECEC services directs focus to a more limited lens of safety, hygiene and promotion of 'healthy foods'. Our findings identify a narrow conceptualisation of mealtimes focused on 'health' as limiting the potential to leverage mealtimes as places to support children's nutrition and attendant development and learning.