Teacher talk: Q&A with Steph Davies

Meet Steph Davies, the Kitchen Garden Foundation’s new Education Advisor. Steph is a qualified teacher, registered with the Victoria Institute of Teaching (VIT), who will write our new Teacher Talk series. This series of articles will examine all the important issues relating to teaching pleasurable food education and introduce you to some of the amazing teachers and specialists who are running kitchen garden programs around Australia.

Before Steph gets busy writing, we thought we’d sit down over a coffee and find out a bit about her …

When did you start working at the Foundation?

I took up the new position of Education Advisor with the Foundation in July. I had long had an interest in cooking and gardening and was working towards developing an elective kitchen garden subject for Year 7-9 students when I saw the job advertised!

What was your background before joining the Foundation?

I’m a qualified teacher with 10 years’ experience working in the education industry. My teaching focus is on the arts/media and humanities methods, and I’ve completed placements in subjects including food technology and health. I started off in a P-12 school and then moved on to a secondary school where I taught the arts and was the head of the school’s arts and technology department, and previously team leader of Year 8.

I started my career in education as a teacher’s aide in a state secondary school, working with students with special needs. I have also worked in the pharmacy industry and was a state coordinator for Vocational Training and Education (VET) and Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAL) programs that helped students obtain community pharmacy qualifications.

What does your role at the Foundation involve?

I offer advice on all education initiatives and help write resources for the Foundation. I am currently helping to write a resource for secondary schools looking to integrate a kitchen garden program into their curriculum, as well as a kitchen garden syllabus for educators teaching Foundation–Year 2 students. I also liaise with the curriculum assessment authorities and teacher subject associations to keep abreast of developments and changes in these areas. This is so I can provide input to the Foundation in order for it to deliver kitchen garden program resources that are relevant to educators and students, and which meet the requirements of schools.

Why do you think it’s important for children to learn to grow and cook food at school?

I think it’s important that students are given an opportunity to be involved in growing food to foster new experiences, especially if they don’t have access to a garden at home. They get to learn through practical activity, and hands on learning in the context of the garden and kitchen. This allows students to grow their own food and experience the success of doing so, and then learning skills in preparing these fruits and vegetables through cooking. The extension of this is they’re learning lifelong skills, because we all need to eat, and eat well. As a teacher I strongly believe in students being ready and able for learning and food, as fuel, prepares them for their own best conditions for learning in being both healthy and focused.

So now we’ve got to know the professional Steph, tell us a bit about the personal Steph …

First cookbook? When I was 12 my mum gave me Stephanie Alexander’s book Stephanie’s Journal and I loved it, even though I may have been a bit young to understand all of the content!

Who nurtured your love of cooking? My paternal grandmother Bernice. When I went to visit her in Stawell she always gave me full rein of her kitchen and when I was in secondary school and studying food technology she encouraged me to make her the food I had learnt to cook at school. My mum has always given me lots of cookbooks and has supported all of my interests including food and cooking, but she wouldn’t really let me in her kitchen!

Favourite kitchen utensil? A mixing bowl that was my grandmother Bernice’s. My mum gave it to me when I moved out of home (I had broken the matching one in the set when I was 17 and mucking about while cooking with a friend!).

Where does your love of gardening come from? My maternal grandmother Betty was into gardening and passed the love for it on to my mum and aunt, who passed it on to me. My husband Simon and I love visiting our favourite nursery and collecting plants for the garden at our house in Melbourne’s leafy outer north. We’ve enjoyed cultivating a native garden in the front yard, and in the backyard have a vegetable garden and orchard, as well as some ornamentals such as ginkgos and forest pansies.

Favourite meal to cook at home? Roast vegetable lasagne.

Favourite vegetable to grow at home? Eggplants! I really like to eat them, and I love their organic shape and purple and green colouring.

Tea or coffee? I have one coffee most days, and like to try new roasters and cafes, but I’m a tea addict! I collect different teas, teapots and tea paraphernalia.

Favourite book? I always read Australian authors, as I like to support the work of local authors. At the moment I’m enjoying reading The Strays by Emily Bitto.

Best way to unwind after a busy day? When I was teaching I got into the routine of coming home and sitting in the hammock on our deck, having a coffee and reading a book. I also love to walk my dog Byron, a rescued Frug (a French bulldog crossed with pug).

Look out for the next instalment of Teacher Talk on the Foundation’s website soon.