Background
Marietjie Van Schalkwyk specialised in Home Economics at University in South Africa and taught the subject for 14 years. When she immigrated to New Zealand in 1997 and started teaching at Wellington High School she didn't feel comfortable with the idea of teaching 'Food Technology' (a term she had not heard of before) and focussed on Home Economics based units.
However, Marietjie is now an enthusiastic Food Technology advocate, finding it "a fascinating subject – exciting with lots of new ideas." She is keen to change students perceptions about food as a subject area to reflect the approach and aspirations of Food Technology – from "What are we cooking?" to "What are we doing? What are we learning?"
At Wellington High, Food Technology is a compulsory one term subject at Year 9, as are Design and Fabrics Technology and Graphic Design. Technology is offered in a range of option subjects in Years 10-13; Food Technology is taught at all levels, Practical Food and Nutrition at Year 11 and Hospitality at Years 12/13.
Marietjie started her Kiwi Bread unit in 2005 with the Year 13 Food Technology class. The 2006 class also worked on the unit, with some students following up what the first group had discovered. The unit continued to evolve and the 2007 Food Technology class worked on promoting the use of Māori potatoes. One student in that class opted to study in more detail the mass production of a uniquely New Zealand bread.
