Teacher-Identified Priorities and Resource Use in Government-Supported School Food and Nutrition Education in Korea.

Background/

Objectives

Government-supported school food and nutrition education depends on whether teachers can locate and use relevant programs and resources. This study identified teachers' perceived priority topics and examined their awareness, use, and barriers regarding government resources in Korea.

Methods

A nationwide voluntary online survey was completed by 1273 elementary, middle, and high school teachers between October and November 2024. Resource outcomes were analyzed in the full sample, whereas the educational needs assessment was limited to 575 teachers who had directly implemented a program supported by the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS). Participants rated the perceived importance and self-reported current implementation of 32 topics. Topic priorities were assessed using paired comparisons with false discovery rate adjustment, Borich scores, and the Locus for Focus model; exploratory subgroup and multivariable analyses examined variation in the importance-implementation gaps.

Results

Perceived importance exceeded self-reported current implementation for 31 of the 32 topics after false discovery rate adjustment. The leading priorities included late night eating, adolescents and caffeine, healthier convenience store food choices, excessive weight control practices, and eating disorders. The overall importance-implementation gap was larger among elementary than middle/high school teachers (0.284 vs. 0.149, p < 0.001), and this difference remained after multivariable adjustment (B = -0.122, p = 0.001). Awareness and use were lower for the MFDS YouTube channel than for the food safety information website; lack of awareness was the most common reason for not using education-specific resources.

Conclusions

Government agencies should combine classroom-ready, developmentally tailored content with active dissemination and teacher training. The identified priorities reflect the perception of teachers with direct implementation experience and should be complemented by future studies using observed implementation measures and student outcomes.