Teachers' Experience and Perspectives of Traditional Breakfast and Breakfast in the Classroom

Abstract

Objective: To understand teachers' perceptions about Breakfast in the Classroom and traditional breakfast.

Design: An electronic survey was sent to teachers across the state of Utah. Teachers responded to an open-ended question exploring what they liked and/or disliked about Breakfast in the Classroom and traditional breakfast.

Setting: Schools across the state of Utah.

Participants: Kindergarten through grade 12 teachers who were members of the Utah Education Association.

Phenomenon of interest: Teachers' opinions regarding Breakfast in the Classroom and traditional school breakfast ANALYSIS: Researchers independently coded all responses and then grouped codes into themes. Themes were reviewed recursively over time.

Results: The 3 overarching themes were food and nutrition, administration of school breakfast, and student outcomes. Aspects most commonly disliked were the nutrition or quality of food, the mess created, the time required, coordination and logistical issues, behavioral issues, and waste. Aspects most commonly liked were breakfast being available to all students, students being fed or not hungry, coordination and logistics, and student learning and academics.

Conclusions and implications: Teachers liked and disliked aspects of Breakfast in the Classroom and traditional breakfast. Schools could potentially increase efforts to garner support and feedback from teachers to create buy-in and identify best practices. Future research could focus on identifying the effect that the School Breakfast Program model has on teachers' perceptions as well as confirming results with a larger and more diverse population.

Keywords: Breakfast in the Classroom; School Breakfast Program; child nutrition; teacher; traditional breakfast.