Chapter 2 Methodology and research design
2.2. Research methodology
2.2.1. Abductive research methodology
The abductive research approach was organized in a number of phases to ensure an interplay between theory and empirical data. Figure 1 is inspired by Kovács and Spens (2005) abductive research process model (Kovács, Spens 2005) and illustrates all the components of my research process. In addition to prior theoretical knowledge and the time spent understanding what has been written theoretically (step 0 in the research process in figure 2) (later identified as food literacy in English) related to food bildung, food citizenship, action competence and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), I developed a theoretical framework/matrix to operationalize the different components and theoretical principles – the step (1) in figure 1. This theoretical framework is made to break down these key concepts into more concrete terms and principles, which could more easily be used when developing interview guides and guidelines for assessing written documents (presented in section 2.5.).
Figure 1: Abductive research process in the Ph.D. project (inspired by Kovács and Spens, 2005)
During the empirical data collection process, observations of the field and understandings of the interviewees related to these key concepts and real life practice are documented (step 2).
Subsequently a longer process of exploring the theory in relation to the empirical findings and vice versa is conducted (step 3). The empirical perspectives related to the theory are presented in chapters 4 and 5. This ping-pong process between theory and empirical understanding is illustrated with the arrows between steps 2 and 3 in figure 1. Step 4 aims to reduce complexity between the theoretical framework and practice and to make theory suggestions. Informed by a revised theoretical overview, presented in chapter 6, the theory suggestions will be presented in chapter 7, where I will present my own theoretical perspectives on food literacy and food citizenship informed
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by the empirical findings. Finally, in step 5 these theoretical discussions, recommendations, conclusions and assessment of practice will form the basis of the final chapter 8.
The process of categorizing and analysing empirical findings and further elaborating on the links between theory and practice using NVivo 10 qualitative analysis software will be further elaborated in sections 2.6 of this chapter.
2.2.2. Literature search strategy and methods
The following section outlines the search strategy applied for the literature review and methods used. It considers the selection criteria for including/excluding material, the search methods used to identify relevant research and the review processes.
Search parameters
The scope of this review was determined by a series of search parameters designed to get an overview of international research relating to:
1. Types of research in the area of farm-school collaboration, food education and food literacy related areas such as school garden, garden-based learning, outdoor learning and Education for Sustainable Development. It was further elaborated by research on agricultural literacy later on in the research process inspired by findings from the empirical work done in Denmark.
2. Research documenting evidence related to impacts of farm-based, garden-based and/or food and nutrition education and outdoor education.
3. Research identifying challenges and opportunities in farm-based, garden-based and/or food education, food literacy, agricultural literacy practice and outdoor education, including recommendations and theoretical perspectives and frameworks within these fields.
4. Conceptual papers on respectively food literacy, food citizenship, agricultural literacy and ESD.
Search methods
Scientific articles were found through searches in PubMed, Google Scholar and ERIC databases using the following search terms:
Food AND literacy, farm/agriculture AND literacy, farm AND school
Only studies in English language were selected. ERIC was found to be the most useful database, as it is the largest education database in the world. It indexes over 725 periodicals and currently contains more than 7,000,000 records. Coverage includes research documents, journal articles, technical reports, program descriptions and evaluations and curricula material.
This brought 17 studies of which 7 were relevant and dealing with primary schools and primary schoolchildren.
Additional searches on PubMed, ERIC, Google Scholar (and the internet in general) were also done to broaden the search and get access to more related data.
21 The following additional search terms were used:
School gardens,
Garden-based education,
Outdoor education, outdoor learning
Eco-literacy, ecological and agricultural literacy
Education for Sustainable Development, sustainability education
Additional scientific articles related to the themes mentioned above were found through the references in the various articles reviewed, thus ensuring a snowball effect in the literature review.
Studies were included that were published primarily between 2003 and 2013, reflecting a desire to examine the most recent research findings. However, other relevant studies were found as important references in some scientific articles, some of which were older than 2003, but were included due to their relevance.
The searches were further narrowed down to only studies focusing on schools (primary and lower primary education) excluding secondary schools and above. Due to limited research in Denmark and in general especially related to food literacy and farm-school collaboration, grey literature such as few Masters theses, non-peer-reviewed articles/reports and conference abstracts as well as books were included to some extent as well as research focusing on secondary school students. This was primarily the case due to the very limited work done in Denmark, for which reason additional studies including non-peer-reviewed articles were included from Denmark as well as Norway.
Geographically, studies were selected primarily from the USA, where the majority of research is taking place (and available in English language). Other research articles were included from Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, Ireland and Germany. An overview of the search parameters is provided in table 1.
Table 1: Search parameters overview
Overall Focus Empirical research and conceptual research on food literacy, food education, farm-school programs, and agricultural literacy.
Additional research on school gardens and outdoor education was included as well.
Timescale Primarily work published between 2003-2013 but expanded to also include earlier work
Age range Kindergarten to 10th grade primarily
Geographical scope International (primarily articles published in English), however, articles/reports published in Danish were also included.
Sources Primarily peer-reviewed publish articles and research reports,
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However, due to limited research on farm-based education, and research from Denmark in related fields, abstracts from conferences (on practice and research in e.g. Norway), reports, Master thesis, Government documents, educational materials and websites were also included.
The literature was reviewed based on the following parameters:
Target group and location focusing on primary schools both primary students AND teachers teaching primary school;
Study design/methodology – aiming at being able to both characterize the different research from a methodological perspective while also getting a variety in terms of different methodological approaches to the field. Both quantitative, qualitative and mixed method studies were selected.
Results and conclusions – was used to get an overview of the documentation of impacts on schoolchildren but also of broader issues related to teachers’ prerequisite and experiences as well as more conceptual views and research processes related to food and agricultural literacy.
The literature review is presented in a matrix in Appendix 1. A summary table of the peer-reviewed literature is in the table 2.
Table 2: Review of research (peer reviewed research)
Topics Number Countries
School gardens/garden based learning
15 USA, Canada, Australia, Germany, Ireland, Denmark, International
Food literacy/food Education/food skills
11 Australia, USA, Canada, Germany, UK, international, conceptual
Agricultural literacy 12 USA
Farm-to-school/farm-based learning
13 USA, Canada, Europe, Italy
Education for Sustainable Dev.
3 USA, Canada, international
Outdoor learning Outdoor education
6 Denmark, UK, Australia, international
Total 60
23 2.2.3 Case study methodology
In order to shed light on the current practice within farm-school collaboration a multiple case study approach was selected relying on qualitative data. Although the case study approach is not always recognized as a proper scientific method, due to arguments of it being too situation specific, subject to the researcher’s subjective analysis and having limited basis for scientific generalization, there are many benefits of learning from particular cases. Flyvbjerg (2004) argues that these misconceptions about case study research are misleading: case study research can produce important context-dependent knowledge, which according to him, is just as valuable as other methods for testing universal and predictive theories. Flyvbjerg explains that for generating theory and testing hypothesis (including generalizability), the selecting of extreme/deviant or maximum variation cases as in this Ph.D. study can reveal more information about various circumstances and outcomes. (Flyvbjerg 2004) Although the main aim of the study is not to reach scientific generalization, it is possible according to Flyvbjerg to generalize from single or multiple case studies. The in-depth understanding of farm-school collaboration from selecting four maximum variation cases can help get a general understanding of farm-school collaboration in Denmark.
According to Yin, the benefit of case studies is to get an in-depth understanding of a phenomenon through the investigating of different factors influencing the phenomenon. (Yin 2009) Understanding various practices, collaboration arrangements, barriers and opportunities in farm-school collaboration as well as the motivation and learning goals of the stakeholders are best investigated through a case study approach, as it enables an in-depth study of these connections and how the phenomena of investigation are affected by different factors related to the situational context: including geographical factors, personal factors of the teachers and farmers, institutional factors as well as political and other structural factors. Investigating these complex real life phenomena and contexts require, according to Yin, the use of multiple sources of evidence in order to be able to triangulate the various sources of data, although this also poses the challenge of extensive amounts of data. In case study research different types of methods can be used, including more quantitative methods like surveys (Yin 2009). This study uses a mix of semi-structured interviews, field observations and written documents including an analysis of educational materials, student projects and film used as educational materials. Due to this rich amount of data, survey data other than existing surveys by the Danish Agriculture and Food Council have not been collected.
Another important feature or definition of case studies is the prior development of a theoretical framework to guide the data collection and analysis (Yin 2009), which was also initially developed for this study, as already described.
Four maximum variation cases of farm-school collaboration in Denmark were selected reflecting various typologies of farms and farm-school collaboration. This was carried out through the use of multiple sources of evidence: including review of existing research, analysis of teaching materials and learning plans, interviews with farmers, teachers and experts on didactics and educational materials from agricultural organizations, observations of farm visits by schools and students’
projects. Case schools and farms in Denmark were selected, where activities in the area of food and agriculture education and farm-to-school collaboration are already carried out.
24 Selection criteria
The following selection criteria for the cases were:
1. Selection of exemplary case farms: part-time farms, full-time farms, farms with integrated production and specialized production, cooperative farms, conventional and organic farms.
2. Schools that have integrated farm visits into a longer educational program related to food production, consumption, sustainability, health and environment, science etc. in one or more subjects or as interdisciplinary projects.
3. Schools that have established a long-term collaboration with local producers and/or have integrated field trips to the farms with other activities at the schools such as the school food service or the school’s values or school policy.
4. To get different perpspectives on how agriculture and food themes and farm visits are used and integrated in the teaching, teachers were selected for interviews from all ranges of grades; from 3rd through to 9th i grades. Teachers from both rural and urban, public and private schools were interviewed.
The empirical phase included an initial and follow-up interviews with key informants e.g. in interest organizations for an overview of farm-to-school collaboration and later on feedback and external validation of findings. Case farms were selected with assistance from either the Organic Schoolyard program or the Danish Agriculture and Food Council in terms of providing contact information of farmers and suggesting farm-school cases that met the criteria mentioned above. Through the contact with farmers and on farm visits, teachers were approached that either were on farm visits or had been on one for an interviews and additional observations on-farm or later in the classroom depending on whether or not this was possible, e.g. if their activities had been completed or continued.
Although the aim was to identify teachers that are motivated and were working to integrate farm visits more thoroughly into their teaching as well as teachers that are less motivated and not working extensively with farm visits afterwards, it was difficult to get an interview with less motivated teachers. A few teachers were identified, but were not very willing to be interviewed or only had limited information to share.
2.3. Case study research design
The case study process was organized through the process described in figure 2, which has been adapted to Yin’s model (Yin 2009). The figure illustrates how an initial theoretical or analytical framework was developed in order to focus and guide the data collection process especially the qualitative interviews (including the interview guide) but also in terms of analysing educational materials. Secondly, cases were identified based on the aforementioned criteria. Cases were studied simultaneously during 2011 and 2012.
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At the outset of the research, a case study protocol was developed and used to guide the research process and structure the design of the research from the practical matters to the case study method and process illustrated in figure 2. The protocol was revised during the research process to reflect changes along the way, e.g. the selection of case study sites. Originally cases from Italy or Germany were planned but it was decided to focus on the Danish cases due to the wealth of cases already present in Denmark. Logbooks were written along the way with reflections from interviews, field observations, literature review, conferences and other sources of inspiration. After completion of the data collection a case study report was written for each case. In the data analysis and writing process, cross-case findings were analysed and conclusions were made (presented in chapters 4 and 5). This was used to inspire a revision and elaboration of the theory discussed and presented in chapters 6 and 7. In practice, however, the last three steps of the research were merged in the writing process.
Figure 2: The case study research process (adapted from Yin, 2009)