[[alternative]]A Study of the Process of Curriculum Decision Making by Home Economics Teachers in Senior High School

[[abstract]]A Study of the Process of Curriculum Decision Making by Home Economics Teachers in Senior High School Abstract The purpose of the research were to understand the teaching process and ideas about teaching of home economics teachers in senior high schools, to find out the process of curriculum decision-making and factors to affect it, and to compare the difference between the results and the present official curriculum outline. The qualitative approach was adopted, data gathered through interviews and the interviewees’ provision. The objects are limited to public senior high school home economics teachers. The tools used are outlines of interviews, recording equipment, interviewing journals, and the researcher herself. Six female and one male teachers were interviewed in this research, aged 26 to 47, with teaching experience between 0 (less than 1) to 19 years teaching in senior high schools. It was found that the Joint College Entrance Exam plays a decisive role in the process of becoming home economics teachers, and the factors to consider about career include the influence by the school teachers in their senior high, personal interests and experience, family condition and encouragement. The ideas discovered include (1) home economics is daily life, is the practice of philosophy, is to promote quality of life; (2) home economics is not a pure theory; (3) the cores of home economics are food and nutrition, clothing, and family life; (4) home economics is to manage a home at the point of economics. The aims of home economics curriculum are inclusive of (1) students should have knowledge about food and nutrition, clothing, and family life; (2) students should think critically and have the abilities to choose suitable life styles; (3) students should have self confidence; (4) students should cherish. The process of curriculum decision-making is, the aims of the curriculum, the structure of the curriculum, the source of the materials, the content of the curriculum, time arrangement and unit order, teaching activities and curriculum evaluation, and, the last step, discuss with the students. The aims of the curriculum are set up according to the home economics education they themselves acknowledged, and, secondly, the observation of social phenomenon and problems, in hope of students’ abilities to live and solve problems. The factors of curriculum decision-making are (1) the teacher him or herself; (2) the official course outline and textbooks; (3) factors inside the school; (4) factors outside the school; (5) seasoning and holidays. Compared with the official course outline, the real course-in-practice cannot completely achieve the regulated. Two objectives were to be found ignored in high school teachers’ ideas about teaching, i.e., to develop confidence to establish happy families, and to inspire interests to keep learning home economics, which are regulated in the official course outline. Moreover, it can be found that various parts of materials are added, including the changes of families, the roles of sexes, teatime affairs, and handicraft. At last, some suggestions were proposed, according to the findings in the study, to the revisers of official curriculum outline, the writers of textbooks, the organizations of teacher education, the school administration, the home economics teachers and further studies.