RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Nutrition professionals function at the nexus of food, nutrition status and the myriad of determinants influencing these. However, defining our role in food system transformation requires a multifaceted and deep understanding of sustainability in the context of nutrition and dietetics (N&D). Practitioner perspectives and experiences provide a rich source of practice wisdom that can inform authentic curriculum to equip students for the complex realities of practice; however, there is limited understanding of these in the Australian higher education setting. METHODS: Qualitative methodology using semistructured interviews with 10 Australian N&D professionals. Thematic analysis was used to understand how they perceive opportunities and barriers for integrating sustainability into practice. RESULTS: Practitioners' experience in sustainability practice varied. Themes were identified in two categories: opportunities and barriers. Themes that reflected future practice opportunities included "Preparing the workforce" (for academics and practitioners interfacing with students), "Practical individual level work" and "System level and policy interests". Themes that were considered barriers to integrating sustainability in practice included "lack of contextual evidence" and "complexity and competing priorities". CONCLUSIONS: Our findings make a novel contribution to the current literature as we recognise practitioners as a source of experience anticipating where sustainability and nutrition practice intersect. Our work provides practice-informed content and context that may assist educators to create authentic sustainability-focused curriculum and assessment to replicate the complexity of practice.
Asunto(s)
Estado Nutricional , Estudiantes , Humanos , Australia , Curriculum , PolíticasRESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: To explore and synthesize local and practice-based perspectives of sustainability to develop a set of proposed guiding thematic statements that will assist academics to contextualize, prioritize, and integrate sustainability-focused activities or a sustainability lens in a nutrition and dietetic (N&D) program. DESIGN: Participatory action research process using an online survey, workshop, and interviews. SETTING: Australian Regional University. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 95 N&D undergraduate students, 7 N&D academics, and 10 Australian nutrition practitioners. PHENOMENON OF INTEREST: Sustainability in N&D learning, teaching, and practice. ANALYSIS: Qualitative inductive content analysis of responses from each participant group and combined themes. RESULTS: There were 4 key themes, each comprising 4-8 subthemes, identified as follows: sustainability thinking, future-focused views, stewardship, and sustaining the nutrition profession. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: There may be opportunities for N&D competencies in Australia to better reflect the ways of being that sustainability in nutrition practice means. Confirmation of these findings among other N&D professionals (academics and practitioners) and students, both in Australia and elsewhere, is warranted to further develop these proposed statements. Future research is needed to describe more explicitly what sustainability looks like in practice, providing specific examples to assist educators to frame sustainability authentically.