An Investigation of the Concepts and Generalizations Included in Secondary Vocational Consumer and Homemaking Programs in Illinois Public Schools

256 p.Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1987.The publication, Concepts and Generalizations: Their Place in High School Home Economics Curriculum Development, published in 1967 by the American Home Economics Association (AHEA) has been widely used by home economics teachers in program planning and development. This study investigated consumer and homemaking teachers' perceptions of the content of the AHEA publication and its importance to their programs.Four hundred and seventy-one consumer and homemaking teachers in Illinois responded to a mailed survey instrument which incorporated 16 major concepts and 157 generalizations selected from the AHEA publication. The instrument was organized according to the subject matter areas of Human Development and the Family, Home Management and Family Economics, Foods and Nutrition, Clothing and Textiles, and Housing. Teachers responded to section/s of the instrument that related to their teaching responsibilities. Teachers identified concepts and generalizations included in their programs, ranked the importance of each concept and generalization and indicated whether the concept and generalization should be included in all programs in the state.All of the concepts and generalizations were included in programs, and the percentage of teachers including the items varied by subject matter area. There was general agreement (approximately 80%) among the respondents that the concepts and generalizations incorporated in the instrument should be included in all consumer and homemaking programs. The teachers' perceptions of the importance of the concepts and generalizations varied according to the variables used to analyze the data. The data revealed a strong relationship between the teacher's perception of the importance of each concept and generalization and the teacher's belief that the item should be included in all programs. Respondents also included in their programs the concepts and generalizations they believed to be important to the present and future needs of their students.Consumer and homemaking teachers in Illinois continue to value and to use the major concepts which reflect the philosophical framework of home economics. There is some question, however, as to the meaningfulness of the corresponding generalizations to existing consumer and homemaking programs.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD