Browsing by Author "Mc Clellan, Elina-Maria"

The aim of this master's thesis is to examine the experiences of home economics teachers in the Liberal Adult Education field concerning home economics online teaching. The Liberal Adult Education institutions were faced with an exceptional situation along with other education providers during the Covid-19 pandemic, when all teaching was provided via online. After the pandemic, online teaching has become a permanent alternative form of teaching. Home economics education in Liberal Adult Education emphasizes practical skills, interaction and working together. Previous studies suggest that in online education it can be challenging to implement home economics education to the fullest regarding its objectives and contents. This thesis examines, what kind of pedagogical decisions home economics teachers make to teach practical skills online, how interaction and collaboration are supported online and what kind of challenges and opportunities do home economics teachers see in online home economics teaching. The thesis was carried out in accordance with the principles of qualitative research approach. The data were collected in late spring 2023 by means of theme interviews with five (N=5) home economics teachers working in Liberal Adult Education who had experience of online home economics teaching. The data were analyzed by means of theory-driven content analysis. Due to the size of the data, the results of this thesis cannot be generalized quantitatively. The results show that home economic teachers make pedagogical decisions before and during teaching. The key pedagogical solutions preceding teaching were related to the value base of teaching, guiding principles and goals, planning of teaching and digital materials prepared by the home economics teachers. The pedagogical decisions during teaching were particularly related to the use of ICT equipment and services to support illustration. Speech as a pedagogical tool also emerged as a significant factor. Supporting interaction and collaboration proved to be challenging due to the different premises and goals of the course participants, as well as their often-passive role. From the home economics teachers' point of view, online teaching had several challenges, such as challenging content, IT challenges and the lack of community spirit and active participation. On the other hand, some of the online home economics education opportunities were seen as location-independence and the participation of friends and family. The teachers felt that online teaching was mainly meaningful, and they saw it as an opportunity to develop their own teaching skills and examine their work from a new perspective. On the other hand, online teaching was also seen as arduous. To obtain a more accurate picture of the phenomenon, it would be important to have a larger sample covering the whole country. It would also be important to study how participants in home economics courses experience online teaching, interaction and collaboration, as well as what their main interests and motivations are for participating.