Home Economics/Family Studies Education in Canadian Schools
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The Canadian Home Economics Association/Association canadienne d'economie familiale is a national professional association representing graduates of. consumer and, family studies, foods and nutrition, home economics, human ecology, textiles and clothing programs. It is made up of two thousand three hundred individual members in federation of provincial and branch associations. Home economists work in education, business, and public service and share the common aim of improving the quality of life of individuals and families. Home economists in many provinces ore identified as Professional Home Economics (PHEc), which indicates a certain standard of academic training and continual professional development. Since it’s founding in 1939, the Canadian Home Economics Association/Association canadienne d'economie fomiliale has played an active role in support of home economics/family studies education. It has supported reviews of home economics/family studies curricula across Canada1.2 and issued a previous position paper on education. This paper details the Association's current concern about home economics/family studies education. It recommends action for the members and education policy makers in the strengthening of home economics/family studies education.
Introduction
Individuals and families in Canada today are coping with great uncertainties about their economic and employment futures. Current economic restraints are forcing people to rely on each other more and to seek security and stability in inter-personal relationships and families. While a large majority of Canadians see their families as a more, or much more important part of their lives than careers or religion, how to balance work and family responsibilities has become a major preoccupation for many people4 and young people indicate difficulties in establishing positive and satisfactory relationships in families and with each other5. Home economics/family studies education enables students to understand and create economic and human resources in the contexts of individual, family, community, and global relationships.
Home Economics/Family Studies as Part of Education
A home economics/family study is a recognized curriculum area from kindergarten to secondary levels in schools throughout the world. In Canada, it is traced back to 1668 as a part of girls' education6,'. It gained wide acceptance in the schools of Canada a century ago as a form of education in close alliance with vocational education of the times. Presently home economics/family studies are part of education for both girls and boys, emphasizing personal decision-making, career and management skills, and personal and family development.
Home economics/family studies is an interdisciplinary curriculum, integrating the social and physical sciences, and humanities in the study of topics arising from daily lives in homes and families. Because its emphasis is on individual and family well-being, it is a school subject responsive to the needs of students and related to the changing needs of individuals and families over time and in particular contexts. As a school subject in different contexts and in different grades, it may be oriented as an applied academic subject, as a product or technology producing course, as career education, as a sociology of families course, as independent living skills, as health education, as human relationships and parenting, or family life education.
Home economics/family studies make a unique contribution to the education of young people. It focuses on the nature and challenges of our daily lives in relationship to other people, to social systems, and to material resources. The curriculum centres on questions such as 'what should be done about...': securing housing; acquiring appropriate clothing; caring for children; food security; and so on. It is unique in teaching about human relationships and development, resource management, consumerism, foods and nutrition, clothing and textiles, housing and aesthetics and integrating these into holistic considerations of daily life. Through an emphasis on awareness of the self in the learning process, students develop basic skills in learning how to learn.
Home economics/family studies has an educative and preventive mission. It helps young people to optimize living in their current familial and personal relationships and to plan well for their future relationships and families. It aspires to increase the resourcefulness of students and help them to live satisfying and quality lives. Resourcefulness is developed through helping students to view problems from various perspectives. Students are encouraged to recognize alternative resources and to create resources in the solution of daily problems. Thus resourcefulness is essential in developing self-reliant attitudes and abilities. Home economics/family studies provides young people the opportunity to consider daily living problems prior to their actual encounter and thus develops their responsibility as individuals in society. The skills and knowledge developed in home economics/family studies are useful to students not only in their personal and family lives, but also in securing and holding employment in business, industry, and the professions. Home economics/family studies programs work with individuals and families to support their capacities and abilities as individuals and families.
Home economics/family studies makes a unique contribution in education as a whole. It contributes to the strengthening of families, which is essential for a strong nation and national economy. When workers experience difficulties meeting family commitments many find it difficult to give their best at work, and have a higher rate of absenteeism and stress related health issues 8,9. In a recent Conference Board survey of more than 7,000 employees, nearly one- third report experiencing stress or anxiety as a result of balancing work and home responsibilities10. Statistics Canada estimates that stress-related disorders due to overwork cost Canadian businesses $I2 billion per year8. Home economics/family studies education contributes as a part of education to the personal, interpersonal, and social development of students.
Indicators of Need for Home Economics/ Family Studies Education
Our rapidly changing society places many strains on Canadian families. The social, economic and technological changes occurring in society and their impact on work, and personal and social relationships provide specific indication of the increasing need to provide the educational opportunity for young people to understand and direct their daily lives.
A complex marketplace forces people to make choices about basic personal and family needs in clothing and textiles, nutrition, and shelter from a myriad of goods and services available from all over the world. Decisions have both personal and social impact and require increased knowledge and decision-making skills. There is evidence suggesting that students need to gain competence in making informed, reasoned choices. 11
Home life is changed by new technologies from communication devices such as the Internet, the VCR and video technologies, to devices such as microwave ovens, bread machines, and so on. Advances in genetics, reproduction, and life support systems, raise legal and moral questions with implications for personal and family well-being. Technologies impact the resources available in families and the ways we relate to each other in families and society. Individual and families are having to make decisions among the possibilities opened by the new technologies. Family structures are more fluid, families are smaller. more couples choose not to have children, there are more one-parent families, more divorces and more quasi-legal marriages4. Students are faced with the changing make-up of their present family/families and making decisions about their future family.
Young Canadians are experiencing more strain in their relationships with their parents and with each other3. This is more pronounced with girls and may be related to adjustment problems they are experiencing with career .aspirations, body image and dealing with the traditional values associated with. marriage and family. Young men appear unaware of their increasing responsibilities with regard to child rearing and homemaking5.
Young Canadians tend to be more aggressive in their relationships with others5. There is a need to have young people understand how better to communicate with, and relate to parents and peers and to manage stress in today’s rapidly changing world. These needs are particularly crucial in the context of the increasingly diverse racial and ethnic Canadian society. I .
While numbers of elderly are increasing, few adolescents have close, on-going relationships with senior family members4. Social and moral questions concerning the elderly are of increasing importance.
At an early age, students face social and moral decisions about sexual relationships, contraception, reproduction and parenting 12. These decisions are particularly complex in the context of diverse cultures and values among Canadian families. As a result of circumstance or choice the numbers of lone parents are increasing. Many young people growing up in small or single -child families today no longer have experience caring for small children.
The labour force participation rates of men are declining, the rates of women have increase rapidly during the past decades, and more than half of Canada’s student population is in the labour market-4. In the majority of two parent families, both parents are employed in the labour force. In Canada, approximately 50% of married women with young children are employed outside the home. This changing role of women in society requires that both men and women adjust to changing roles within families. Children and adolescents are assuming responsible roles within their own families at an early age and they are concerned about establishing their own future roles and relationship patterns.
Global competition, global travel, and communication have radically changed the way we work. Canada is a highly mobile society. in which families move frequently within their community and beyond, often to secure employment. Parents may be absent from the home, living in another country or region in the country for reasons of employment. There are fewer full year, full time jobs and more family homes are becoming places of paid work and enterprise.
More than 1.3 million of Canada's children live in families with incomes below poverty lines. A recent survey by the Angus Reid Group found that economic concerns like finances, the economy and employment prospects are the most pressing issues facing families for 72% of respondents4.
Troubled families are on the rise. The numbers of reported cases of assault and battering, child or elder abuse. abuses of alcohol and drugs, and delinquencies are increasing. Twenty-five per cent of Canadian women and 10% of Canadian men have been abused before the age of 164. Sixty to seventy percent of runaways and 98% of child prostitutes have a history of child abuse14. Seventy-five percent of abusive husbands have grown up in violent, abusive families. Family court judges suggest that a lack of parenting skills among many adults is the underlying cause for a majority of problems of delinquent youth.
The Current State of Home Economics /Family Studies Education
Home economics/family studies courses are offered in all provinces at each level of secondary education2. However, in most provinces in most grades they are elective. The number of compulsory courses in a secondary student's program severely limits the number of electives, which students can take. Consequently, home economics/family studies education reaches a minority of students in the schools of Canada and therefore has not reached its potential in contributing to the development of students and in strengthening families in Canada.
The above indicators of need highlight the importance of home economics/ family studies education that provides an opportunity for students to: gain an understanding of present family experience and improve their capacity as family members; evaluate a variety of social circumstances such, as declining family incomes, alternate role arrangements, increasing globalization, the aging population, and their influence on family well-being; develop values and expectations that will assist them in establishing Canada's future families; develop technical, communicative, and critical thinking skills that- foster a productive work and family life
Home economics/family studies education can be a force for: enhancing the coping ability of Canadians to deal with personal and family health problems; assisting girls/women and boys/men in creating more equitable relations in families. the workplace, and society; increasing the resources available to all families in helping them carry out their family responsibilities
Home Economics/Family Studies is the only school subject whose primary focus is on preparing students for everyday life in an increasingly complex global society. It is unique in its systematic, integrative approach where problems of daily life are addressed in a holistic manner.
References
1. Peterat, L. (1984). Home Economics: A Survey of Provincial Curricula at Secondary Level. Fredericton, NB: University of New Brunswick
2. Peterat, L. & Khamasi, J. (1994) Home Economics/Family Studies: A Survey of Provincial Curricula. Unpublished report, Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia
3. Canadian Home Economics association (1985). Home Economics/Family Studies Education in Canadian Schools: A Position Paper. Ottawa, ON: Author.
4. Vanier Institute of the Family (l994). Profiling Canada's Families. Ottawa, ON: Author. Also by the same author: Canadian Families: Canadian Families in Transition: The Implications and Challenges of Change; and What Matters f or Canadian Families?
5. King, A. & Coles, B. (1992). The Health of Canada's Youth . Ottawa. ON: Health and Welfare Canada.
6. Bevier, I. (1924). Home Economics in Education. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott.
7. Peterat, L. 3. DeZwart, M. L. (1995). An education for women. The founding of home economics education in Canadian public schools. Charlottetown, PEI: Home Economics Publishing Collective, University of Prince Edward Island
8. Canadian Committee for the International Year of the Family (1994a). The Work and Family Challenge: Issues and Options. Ottawa ON: Author.
9. Canadian Committee for the International Year of the Family (1994b). The State of the Family in Canada. Ottawa ON: Author
10. Alvi, Shahid (1994). The work and family challenge: issues and options. Ottawa: The Conference Board of Canada.
11. Siggner, A. (1988). Technical Report Series: Special Study on Youth . Ottawa, ON: Minister of Supply and Services Canada.
12. Dolney, C. (1996). Need for a parenting course. Canadian Home Economics Journal, 46(2), 82-84.
13. Ross, D., Shillington. R. & Lochhead, C. (1994). The Canadian Fact Book on Poverty.
Ottawa, ON: Canadian Council on Social Development.
14. Vis-a-vis. A National Newsletter on Family Violence (1995). 12(4), 12.
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