The process of overcoming difficulties faced by novice home economics teachers in elementary schools

The purposes of this paper is to ascertain the difficulties faced by novice home economics teachers in elementary schools and the process for overcoming those difficulties. Our methodology uses the Trajectory Equifinality Model (TEM) to analyze interviews conducted with three newly hired home economics teachers at a public elementary school in H City in fiscal 2014. When they first assumed their posts, the three teachers had not been uncomfortable teaching classes in home economics, but after gaining the support of other teachers, they reached the point where they were eager to teach home economics classes the following year based on what they learned during their first year. The teachers experienced various challenges during that time. Teacher A had problems mainly with practice classes; Teacher B had problems mainly with how to deal with the students; and Teacher C had problems with practice classes, lecturetype classes, and developing relationships with the students. Although the difficulties experienced by the three novice home economics teachers differed depending on their attitude toward home economics and conditions in the workplace, ways to overcome these difficulties consisted of the following three points: the building of a support system for discussions about home economics; the building o f a s ystem t o f acilitate a better understanding of students’ actual lives; and the creation of a system that encourage participation in training.This article translated into Japanese is published in the journal Gakushu Shisutemu Kenkyu,Vol.5