In the past, horticultural education regarded plants as the sources of economic profits for man and focused on the maximization of yield. Entering modern society, there has been a shift from the old conventional horticultural concept that connected th...
In the past, horticultural education regarded plants as the sources of economic profits for man and focused on the maximization of yield. Entering modern society, there has been a shift from the old conventional horticultural concept that connected the roles of horticulture to economy toward the modern horticultural concept that even takes into account mutual relations between horticulture and man.
Based on the recognition that the roles of horticulture should change too in modern society that was increasingly developing and diversifying, this study set out to propose future directions for horticultural education based on changes to the perspective on relations between plans and man.
The investigator analyzed the changing processes of horticultural education through literature analysis and built a framework to analyze the paradigms of elementary horticultural curriculums based on the changing paradigms of horticulture-related forest education and environmental education. Based on the findings, the following directions were proposed for future horticultural education:
First, the analysis results indicate that the curriculums since the Seventh Curriculum reflect the recent ecological view of the world regarding relations between man and plants in the content of horticultural education. Based on the results, the study proposed a need to reorganize the content of horticultural curriculum in a way that would remove the perspective of resource economy that had long been the basis for selecting content of horticultural education and adopt the social and cultural perspective of promoting health such as leisure purposes and horticultural therapy and the ethical and philosophical perspective of creating a sustainable society in the organic relationships among plants, man, and environment.
Second, the analysis results of survey responses show that most of the teachers still kept an environmental and ecological perspective as to horticultural activities. The study thus proposed a need to provide them with teacher education and in-service training to help them convert their perceptions so that they could meet the demands of the times that emphasize education on sustainable development and offer horticultural education embracing a new paradigm of pursuing harmonious life among plants, man, and environment.