Knowledge and attitudes of elementary students towards Slovene traditional dishes

Slovenia is a small, central European country with rich cultural and natural diversity. It is situated at the crossroads of the Alps, the Mediterranean, the Pannonian Plain and Dinarides. Besides its natural features it is also at the crossroads of the Slavic, Germanic, Romanic and Ugrofinnic language group. A great influence was also the migration from other countries, mainly from the former Yugoslav republics. All of the above mentioned influenced the diet through the centuries. Nowadays the everyday Slovenian diet is nothing like the diet 50 years ago. The former one was based on local and seasonal products that were prepared differently from region to region. People in the past mainly consumed vegetables, because meat was only available on special occasions. Today, in the time of globalisation, the Slovenian national dishes are fading away and that affects the younger generations and their knowledge and attitude to them. The students get to know them at the optional subject The Ways of Nourishment, and during the Home Economics lessons, the topic of national dishes is not mentioned. That led me to start researching how much the students know the national dishes and what their attitude to them is. The students completed an online questionnaire asking them how well they know the national and local dishes and we wanted to know if there was any difference between the students who attended the optional subjects and those who did not, and the general attitude towards to the Slovenian national dishes. 219 students from the eighth and ninth grade form all over Slovenia took part in the survey. The results show that they know the most common national dishes well and that the optional subject does not make a big difference in their knowledge. The students have a positive attitude to the dishes and find them tasty. Here it was also obvious that attending the optional subject does not affect their attitude. It would be sensible to include the topic of Slovene national dishes in the Home Economics curriculum. It is necessary for students to recognise less known national dishes as well, especially local ones. Educating them on the topic can lead to better preservation of tradition