The purpose of this study is to search for the development strategies for the future of home economics education based on the identity of home economics education, the empowerment of teachers in home economics and the diagnosis, requirements and futur...
The purpose of this study is to search for the development strategies for the future of home economics education based on the identity of home economics education, the empowerment of teachers in home economics and the diagnosis, requirements and future vision of home economics education with the subjects of teachers in home economics, students and general adults. Therefore, the qualitative and quantitative studies are integrated in deliberative technique. First, the qualitative study was made by interviewing 14 teachers in home economics and adults on person-to-person basis from April 9, 2005, to August 20, and printed out the recording data on document form, and interpreted in continuous comparison and analysis method. In order to solidify the survey tools developed on the basis of the document search and personal interview results, an open style questionnaire survey was conducted on 14 specialists in the home economics education from August 20, 2005 to August 28. As the tool of this survey, the off line questionnaire survey was made for the general adults from September 1, 2005 to October 3 as the survey tool, and the online questionnaire survey was implemented for the students and teachers in home economics. The questionnaire data finally analyzed by integrating online and offline was in a total of 1,003 copies with the general adults for 264 copies, students for 505 copies, and the teachers in home economics for 234 copies, and the data is made for frequency analysis, factor analysis, reliability analysis, T verification, one way analysis of variance, Borich requirement analysis, SWOT analysis with SPSS 10.0.
The outcome and conclusion of this study after going through the above process are as follows.
First, the image and the characteristics of the home economics education are the factors of the identity that are also the byproducts of the home economics education operation of the past and present, and has the characteristics in changing in accordance with the change of time. The current home economics education image is shown to positive recognition as the curriculum that is helpful to the actual living and future living for all teachers in home economics, students and general adults. For the teachers in home economics, it has strong emotionally warm image similar to the image of ‘home’, and it is connected to the curriculum image to be acknowledged as good problem solving teachers in terms of competence and conservative image in terms of activity aspect. However, on the images of the home economics curriculum and teachers in home economics, the teachers in home economics had the most positive recognition, and on the image of the home economics curriculum, the students had the most negative recognition while the image of the teachers in home economics, the general adults had the most negative recognition. The general adults from the three groups recognized the home economics curriculum as the most technology striving curriculum while the students recognized the image of the home economics curriculum that emphasized as interesting curriculum, socially contributing curriculum and activity oriented curriculum as the lowest from the three groups.
In the meantime, for the characteristic of the home economics education, the teachers in home economics recognized that the it has weak female curriculum characteristics and strong living functional curriculum characteristics, and the practical curriculum characteristics would be important in the future. As such, depending on the change of time, the image of home economics education and characteristics of home economics education have been changing, and the implication of practice in the home economics education has been mixed and changed in various implications including the application of scientific theory, ethical code of action, linkage with the local community and others. This may be interpreted that the implication of practice that the teachers in home economics of Korea recognized is similar to the spirit and vein of ‘Gunghaeng’ of traditional practical completeness, and the implication of practice under the education process has been presented sometimes in practice and sometimes in application of the scientific theory. Accordingly, the identity of the home economics education formulated may be considered as the practical curriculum that is helpful to problem solving in actual living of the family and family members with the connection to the concept of ‘home’. However, depending on the definition on implication of practice and issue of actual living, the characteristics and appearance of the home economics education have been changed and may interpret as changing according to the above.
Second, when classifying the empowerment in 6 factors of class operation capability, influence, specialization, ethics, implication and self-regulation, the teachers in home economics recognized the ethics and self-regulation as high in the current empowerment, and had high demand on influence and class operation capability in the future empowerment. In other words, influence is to heighten the status and influence in home economics education by participating in various local community activities, and the class operation capability is the capability to manage the class for bring out the interests of students, that these requirements can be considered as the expression of desire to recover the price for teachers in home economics as the professionals before students without the negative social recognition on the home economics education. In the same context, most of the teachers in home economics recognized the execution of the education process as the situational practitioners, and for practicing better home economics education at the actual classroom situation; they generated the ‘classroom knowledge’ of the other home economics education different from the contents specialists in a way of asserting the professionalism.
Third, the degree of satisfaction for the home economics education in diagnosing on the home economics education showed noticeably lower for the general adults compared to the students and teachers in home economics, and the recognition on the degree of help for home economics education was noticeably lower compared to the students. This is considered as the social recognition based on their personal experience that the home economics education emphasized the function not actually used, not very helpful in real life, and contents that lag behind of time. On the other hand, the students recognized highly for the degrees of satisfaction and help on the home economics education, however, the demand on characteristics or contents of curriculum in the home economics education was noticeably lower than the teachers in home economics and general adults. In addition, they recognized the element of ‘fun’ in the home economics education as a very important element, and this is attributable to the characteristics of present-oriented students. In the meantime, the teachers in home economics the teachers in home economics presented the actual problem solving capability in life with the connection of family members and the academic features to approach in various aspects as the strengths in the SWOT analysis on the home economics education, and as the weak points, they pointed out the identity confusion of the home economics education and shallow education process and its contents that lag behind the change of time. For the external environment that may work as an opportunity to the home economics education, they pointed out the recognition on the home life with both man and woman build up and emotional function of home from the social issues arising from family issues, and they pointed the threatening factors as the negative social recognition on the home economics education and weakening status in social and educational courses from it.
Forth, most of the teachers in home economics acknowledged the need of fundamental change of home economics education and generated the ‘visualization of healthy society through happy family life’ as the future vision of home economics education. That is the same line with the social well-being and welfare promotion through the individual and family happiness and the improvement of quality of life that were the purpose of the home economics education that the it proposed that the identity of the home economics education also has to change and develop n the basis of such purpose and vision. In the meantime, for the characteristics of future home economics education, the teachers in home economics were shown to prefer the practical curriculum characteristics while the students and general adults showed their preference in living functional curriculum characteristics. For the competency to grow with the focus in the future home economics education are the problem solving capability, living management capability, human relationship capability for all three groups, and in addition, the capability of harmonizing the work and family living, communication and others are formulated. On the contents of the future home economics education, the teachers in home economics and general adults had high preference in the family related territory while students had high preference in cooking practice territory. In other words, the teachers in home economics placed the importance on the characteristics of practical curriculum, problem solving capability in living, and territory related to family, while the students valued living function in curriculum characteristics, capability of human relationship and living management, and cooking practice territory. And, the A5 recognized the importance of ‘harmony of work and family life’, capability of ‘living management’, family and home economics territory. As such, the large difference of recognition for teachers in home economics, students and general adults from the demands on characteristics, core competence, and important territory of the future home economics education indicated that the teachers in home economics had the weight on future of the home economics education, the students on the present and the general adults on the part as the standard of their views.
Fifth, the future development strategies of the home economics education based on the outcome of this study can be comprehensively defined internally as the continuous research and discussion on the identity and the philosophy of the E2, promotion of empowerment of teachers in home economics and home economics education, development of various S2 programs including prevention and treatment, and facilitation of the group home economics education and others. For external aspect, the strategies are formulated for the establishment and publicity for the concept to enhance the social recognition, emergence of the importance of home, efforts to formulate policies for the home economics education for enhancing the status of the home economics education and others. In particular, the home economics education has to interpret and reflect the actual life in context on the aspect of various aspects for each life cycle, and as the specialized fields to provide personal service, the teachers in home economics have to increase the specialization and empowerment as the practitioners with contemplation. In addition, by linking with the problem solving of comprehensive and diverse experience in real life, not just the simple function-oriented practice, in a way of establishing its identity as the true practical curriculum that combined the theory and practice. In addition, strengthening of ‘fun’ element to heighten the degree of satisfaction for students and developing and applying the reflection of actual living context for general adults, and others into the home economics education programs are also needed.
Therefore, as the succeeding studies in the home economics education, we hereby propose to facilitate the studies to solidify the identity of the home economics education, the studies to establish the subjective philosophy of the home economics education of Korea, the studies on empowerment in the level of group or organization as well as empirical and philosophical position, and various qualitative studies and online questionnaire surveys.