Intercultural expertise in supporting nutrition and physical activity

Peer-reviewed | Manuscript received: March 27, 2014 | Revision accepted: February 03, 2015

A research project with practical implementation

Project description and objectives

The German-Danish INTERREG 4A1 project “International Expertise Network: New Perspectives on Sustainable Expertise in Nutrition and Physical Activity” (in short: “Nutrition and Physical Activity without Borders/Mad & bevaegelse uden graenser”) [“Grenzüberschreitendes Kompetenznetzwerk: Neue Perspektiven für eine nachhaltige Ernährungs- und Bewegungskompetenz”; in short: “Ernährung & Bewegung ohne Grenzen”] has already extended over several years and has the objective of encouraging the independent, responsible and joyful planning of everyday nutrition and physical activity.

Flensburg University and University College Syddanmark have identified additional objectives that extend beyond individual countries, subjects and institutions. Their plan is to initiate a very broad project approach with heterogeneous target groups, and to succeed in implementing the educational processes in practice [1]. This approach focuses on developing expertise in nutrition and physical activity and on enhancing independence and responsibility in the everyday life of schoolchildren, functional illiterates and immigrants. Functional illiterates are individuals who have been to school, but who nevertheless cannot read, write or calculate well enough to fulfil social requirements. According to the Level One Study in 2011, this is the case for 7.5 million people in Germany2 [2, 3].

Summary

The research project “Nutrition and Physical Activity without Borders” [“Ernährung & Bewegung ohne Grenzen”] has identified positive and negative factors that can influence the development of intercultural expertise on nutritional education and encourage physical acitivity in target groups — both within and outside schools. The project employs the model of participation and of the peer education approach. The present article reports the initial results on the implementation of these approaches and of the “Food & Move literacy concepts”, which were developed, tested and evaluated within the project.

Keywords: nutritional expertise, physical activity expertise, participation project, interculturality, peer education, food literacy, move literacy

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