This study aimed to examine the operation of the Home Economics education courses in the graduate schools of education, and to find out how graduate students perceive them. Data were collected with the use of handbooks issued by 11 graduate schools of...
This study aimed to examine the operation of the Home Economics education courses in the graduate schools of education, and to find out how graduate students perceive them. Data were collected with the use of handbooks issued by 11 graduate schools of education located in Seoul, and through telephone conversations with the administrative staff. To determine how graduate students majoring in Home Economics perceive their Home Economics courses, a survey was conducted among the graduate students in 10 graduate schools of education, and a total of 131 accomplished questionnaires were used for data analysis.
The results of the study are as follows.
First, all 11 graduate schools aimed to retrain their teachers, enhance their professionalism, and produce home economics education experts. The Home Economics Education courses come in two strands; a teacher's course and a major course. Most of the schools require a total of 30 credits. All Schools lack professors. Only 3 graduate schools have a home Economics Department in the College of Education. All graduate schools are offering a teacher’s course based on a teacher’s certification system. In a major course, Home Economics education has the largest number of subjects, with Clothing and Textiles and Food and Nutrition being given greater emphasis, and Consumer Economics, Home Economics Management, Child Care, and Family and Housing Studies being given less emphasis.
Second, they mostly regard the graduate school of education as producer of experts, followed by producers of teachers and teacher re-trainers. Those who were majoring in Home Economics Education in college, and the teachers, are more interested in teacher re-training, while the non-teachers and those who were not majoring in Home Economics Education are more interested in producing teachers. They are less satisfied with the operation of the graduate school of education. But they are generally satisfied with the Home Economics Education course. Graduate students registered the lowest satisfaction with a major course, especially experimental subjects. For a teacher's course, the graduate students who are not teachers exhibited higher satisfaction, whereas the teachers showed lower satisfaction. But teachers registered more satisfaction with the practical use of major subjects in the educational field, thinking that their major was a big help in their work at a school. As for what has to be improved with regard to the Home Economics Education course, many cited the necessity of securing a good faculty and expanding the major subjects.