In W Junior high school, the home economics teacher is allotted 50 minutes in teaching her practice in cooking class. The researchers attempted to explain the realities, some factors and educational significance of this 50-minute practice enabling the home economics teacher to teach her class. Ethnographic methods are used to describe the practice in cooking class in W junior high school to interpret participatory fieldwork in her class. In addition, field notes of her interviews and correspondence for the past ten years were analyzed. In one example, 40 senior students engaged in cooking curry and rice with a pork cutlet. At the beginning of the class, the home economics teacher presented two directions, and observed students all the time during the class. All the students in each group understood the point of cooking activities based on a handout, and took part in cooking activities cooperatively. It was thus possible for them to set the table within 30 minutes. They ate together, cleared the table after a meal, wrote what they felt about it, and left the cooking room by the end of the 50-minute lesson time. In order to finish the practice in cooking class within 50 minutes, the teacher needs to pay attention intensively by not only analyzing the cooking activities and reactions of the students but also exerting her originality and ingenuity in developing her teaching materials and instructional methods, and improving the environment of the cooking room. As a result, such classes help the students acquire basic cooking skills needed for their daily life, and stimulate their group activities and communication.

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This research aims to clarify the current state and issues of the home economics classes. We will introduce the local perspectives by analyzing cases of home economics teaching practices in Kyushu and Okinawa. Twelve hundred and sixty-nine cases were collected from 1994 to 2004, and 368 cases were analyzed. Each case was examined using the standards of the levels of 1 to 5, which are based on the standards of teaching method, contents, awareness of living issues, and motivation to reform using local perspectives. The results were as follows; 1. The number of cases has been increasing gradually after 1998. The cases in the food and nutrition area were approximately half of all cases. 2. All cases corresponded to level 1, and approximately 60 percent of them corresponded to level 2. The level 3 cases were the fewest, but the level 4 cases occupied 25.3 percent. The level 5 cases were the second fewest. 3. In high schools, the fewest cases were the level 3 and 5.

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In today's consumerism society, it is important for high school students to learn how to select their dairy clothes. Thus we need to teach students skills of clothing selection to fit the aims, occasion, and their characters. However, students' clothing choice is expected to vary by gender. The objective of this study was to clarify the relationship between dressing behavior and gender attitudes. It was found that students who had strong gender bias were likely to be affected by circumstances and fashion trend. On the other hand, students who were less biased were likely to choose their clothes rationally. Female students in coeducational schools were more sympathetic with gender role differentiation between husbands and wives. Through the lessons featuring clothing behavior with an emphasis on gender perspectives, students also became more aware of gender issues in the school life.

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