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Home economics is an interdisciplinary subject, integrating sciences and humanities in the study of topics arising from people's daily lives in homes and families.
As a school subject, home economics may be oriented as an applied skills training program, as a product or technology producing course, as career education, as a sociology of families course, as a course in independent living skills, or as a study of human growth and development. Designed as a holistic framework that brings together the various aspects of home economics, this 8 to 10 curriculum can be implemented in such a way as to support any of these orientations.
Factors such as school timetabling, available facilities, student interest, and teacher preference or expertise will all play a role in determining how Home Economics 8 to 10 is implemented in a particular school. The amount of time devoted to each outcome is for the teacher to determine. Some outcomes can be addressed through very brief instruction. The teaching related to other outcomes may last many days or even weeks. Often, several outcomes can be addressed simultaneously.
One way for teachers to plan a Home Economics 8 to 10 program based on this curriculum is to use "big ideas" or themes as the focus for instruction. Possible themes include:
By taking an imaginary trip around the world and stopping in various places, teachers and students can explore characteristic foods, textiles, and lifestyles (family and marketplace) in a variety of circumstances.
By focussing on celebrations or observances that are unique to particular cultures (e.g., Christmas, Chinese New Year, Vasaki, Hanukkah) or that are universal but observed in many different ways (e.g., birthdays, weddings, funerals), teachers can address the outcomes related to food, textiles, care giving, and consumer practices.
By comparing food production, textile production, care giving, and consumption patterns in family and workplace contexts, teachers can help students develop the specified knowledge, skills, and attitudes for home economics and give them a good sense of how and where these can be applied.
To combine learning outcomes in an interesting and enlightening manner, teachers can use a Story Model in which students focus on changes in food production, textile production, family structures, personal resources, and approaches to care giving over the past 200 years and into the foreseeable future.
The various stages of human growth and development can serve as a basis for examining changing needs and wants with respect to nutrition, textiles, resource consumption (and management), care, and nurturing.
Implementing the Curriculum
Teachers with established foods, textiles, or family studies programs that emphasize one particular aspect of this curriculum and whose value is recognized by school administrators, parents, and students may choose to continue these courses using previously existing curriculum guides.
It is intended that the curriculum contained in this IRP will eventually replace previous home economics curricula, but it is recognized that schools and districts will require lead time to phase in the new curricula. To provide this time, both the existing provincial home economics curriculum and the new curriculum will remain in effect until September 1999. At that time, schools wishing to continue to offer the old curriculum will be required to obtain approval within their districts.
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Revised: August 27, 1998
