Browsing by Subject "Kotitalousopetus"

Objectives. Home economics education should establish action which tackles challenges and opportunities related to daily life and digital tools. Previous studies have shown that the most important predictors of home economics teachers’ information and telecommunication technology use are the teacher-level factors of digital competence, perceived usefulness of information and telecommunication technology in home economics teaching and the school-level support. In addition, there is a connection between perceived usefulness of information and telecommunication technology in home economics teaching and its use for facilitating pupils’ learning. This study investigates use of digital tools in home economics teaching, in a sense of what kind of experiences and perceptions home economic teachers’ and teacher students’ have. Thus, finding out how digital tools are used in home economics teaching and which factors have an impact to pedagogical decisions. Methods. This study combines two types of data, thus being a mixed-methods study. Data was collected by a questionnaire from Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish and Estonian home economics teachers and teacher students (n222). 1) Qualitative data was analysed by using thematic analysis, but only using Finnish home economics teachers’ and teacher students’ responses. 2) Part of qualitative data was quantified by using Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish and Estonian respondents’ answers. 3) Quantitative data was analysed by using SPSS-program. Means, standard deviations, t-tests and cross-tabulations were calculated from the data. Results and conclusions. Home economics teachers and teacher students used digital tools particularly to ease teachers work tasks and to support pupils’ learning. By respondents’ experiences digital tools bring value to teaching and the use of digital tools is favourable. Home economics studies have supported and encouraged teacher students to use digital tools, but there is need for further and greater support in the future, especially at teacher training.

The aim of my thesis was to find out how the tray of the optional subjects was shaped in the upper secondary school and what things influenced to the process of making the tray of the optional subjects. The second aim of this thesis was to find out which reasons pupils had for choosing or not choosing home economics as an optional subject. Home economics is a subject that typically ends as a common subject in the spring of year 7. At the end of this the development of household skills at school is left to the optional home economics’ hands. The aim of this work is to help home economics teachers to find ways to motivate students to con-tinue studying home economics more often. My research questions in this thesis were: 1. How are the tray of optional subjects formed in the upper secondary school? 2. How do pupils justify their choices to choose or not to choose home economics as an optional subject in secondary school? For the first research question, I interviewed the headmaster of a school in southern Finland, who brought an education provider’s perspective to the topic. On the basis of head-master’s answers, I outlined the process of creating the tray of the optional subjects. To answer the second research question, I interviewed ten pupils from the same school. They had made elective choices in secondary school. I analysed the interview data using content analysis by making reduced expressions from the quotations and gathering different categories from them. Finally, I examined the differences between the responses of students who had chosen home economics and those who had chosen something else than home economics. The process of forming the tray of optional subjects was initiated by the need to make changes which were caused by the reform of the national curriculum. National curriculum, local policies, pupils’ interests and future competence needs guided the develop-ment process of optional subjects’ tray. Pupils’ choices of optional subjects were most influ-enced by their own interest in learning and their experience of subjects they liked. Differences between those who chose home economics and those who chose something else than home economics were found in how stressful or easy they found home economics lessons and how good they perceived their own home economics skills to be. Pupils wanted optional subjects to be relaxing and meaningful for themselves.

Finnish grade school is becoming more and more multicultural due to increasing immigration. However, according to previous studies, the structures of our education system are not equal or do not support diversity. Purpose of this thesis is to study experiences of otherness of young people with immigration background. The object of the analysis is to clarify what kind of experiences of otherness and othering young people have encountered in secondary school and in home economic classes. By opening the experiences of otherness, the dismantling of distorted value structures can be promoted. Qualitative research data were collected in December-January 2021–2022. Eight young adults with an immigrant background participated to the interviews. The young adults were from the Helsinki metropolitan area. The themes of the interviews covered the use of the concept of immigrant, identity and citizenship, racism, discrimination, as well as time in secondary school and home economic classes. The interview material was analyzed with content and thematic method. According to the study, home economic classes were perceived as pleasant, and they promoted equality. However, element where the students' backgrounds would become more visible part of education were missed. By group division in home economic classes teacher can promote mutual respect between students. The functional structure of the learning content is suitable for practicing interaction skills. Racism and discrimination in schools were found to be difficult to deal with because they are not actively talked about within school culture. According to the study, students are powerless to express the racist, discriminatory, and unfair treatment they have faced in school. The study found that the use of a concept immigrant increases young people’s sense of otherness. The young people also felt that it was difficult for the representatives of the mainstream culture to accept their identification as Finns.