Rationale

The rapid social, economic, and technological changes occurring in our society and their impact on work and on personal and social relationships are placing many strains on families and on young people. Increasing social diversity is creating changing patterns of needs and wants. Economic adjustments include higher labour force participation rates for women, and the employment in the labour force of both parents in two-parent families. At the same time, our complex marketplace, offering an enormous variety of goods and services from all over the world, forces individuals to sometimes make difficult choices about basic personal and family needs with respect to care services, textiles, and food. New technologies also affect the resources available in families and the ways we all interact.

Home economics addresses these challenges related to family and daily living. It draws knowledge from many disciplines and uses the experiences and needs of students to make learning meaningful in both personal and familycontexts. Home economics focusses on helping students develop practical abilities related to foods, textiles, and care giving. It also fosters the critical-thinking and problem-solving skills needed to manage resource effectively. In so doing, home economics makes an important contribution to:

• improving the quality of students' present and future family lives
• increasing students' resourcefulness in dealing with domestic and workplace challenges
• enhancing students' development as responsible citizens

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