2017 Volume 68 Issue 1 Pages 22-34
The purpose of this study is to clarify Home Economics education in a primary and a lower secondary school in Lower Saxony, Germany.
The study is based on a survey of the Home Economics curriculum and schoolbooks, and interviews with teachers and students during a visit to Lower Saxony in February 2016.
The results were as follows:
1. Home Economics has been positioned in lower secondary schools, but is not compulsory, whereas textile production has been positioned in primary and lower secondary schools as a compulsory subject.
2. Five areas, that is to say, “Meal preparation”, “Nutrition and Health”, “Determination of Food Quality and Consumption,” “Lifestyle and Food Culture,” “Economy, Ecology and Society” make up the core curriculum of Home Economics. In the Home Economics classes the school has mainly provided cooking practice, and education regarding household management, as well as the importance of diet in our daily lives.
3. Five areas, “Technology and Design of Clothing in Our Daily Lives”, “Using a Sewing Machine”, “Clothing in a Cultural Context”, “Mode”, “Housing” make up the core curriculum of textile production in the lower secondary school , and “Knowing”, “Forming”, “Historical and Cultural Context of Textile Production” are in the core curriculum of textile production in the primary school. Both schools have provided practical training to encourage the joy of making something using cloth and yarn in the textile production classes.
