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Poor Attitude Towards Assignment and Academic Performance in Home Economics

Poor attitudes towards home economics among students can negatively impact their academic performance in the subject. A study found that students often chose home economics because they thought it was just about cooking. However, their teachers reported that students did not take the subject seriously and were unlikely to do well. Prejudices around traditional gender roles also discouraged some boys from studying home economics, as they might face ridicule from their peers. Additionally, the subject is taught almost exclusively by female teachers, further perpetuating its association with traditional femininity. These factors help explain the low enrollment numbers in home economics programs in Ireland.

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39 views

Poor Attitude Towards Assignment and Academic Performance in Home Economics

Poor attitudes towards home economics among students can negatively impact their academic performance in the subject. A study found that students often chose home economics because they thought it was just about cooking. However, their teachers reported that students did not take the subject seriously and were unlikely to do well. Prejudices around traditional gender roles also discouraged some boys from studying home economics, as they might face ridicule from their peers. Additionally, the subject is taught almost exclusively by female teachers, further perpetuating its association with traditional femininity. These factors help explain the low enrollment numbers in home economics programs in Ireland.

Uploaded by

Idongesit Williams
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Poor attitude towards assignment and Academic Performance in Home Economics

There is little empirical research about pupils’ participation in home economics


education. However, a study by Attar (1990) revealed that pupil expected home economics to be
about cooking and this was attractive to those who chose the subject. Their teachers reported that
pupils are not likely to do well or to take the subject seriously because their attitude towards
assignment and one teacher reported that the pupil’s involvement could be explained by ‘the call
of the adolescent stomach’. One reason for the poor uptake of home economics is the attitude
towards assignment by pupils is offered by Wynn (1983). She argues that attitudes persist
regarding the curriculum offering of home economics. ‘These attitudes provide a hidden
curriculum which encourages pupils to conform to stereotyped roles’. Furthermore, she asserts
that knowledge and awareness of curriculum changes are limited. ‘These attitudes show a lack of
understanding of much current teaching of home economics, and of its potential’. The entry of
boys into the home economics classroom ‘may not change the world’ but is vital. Without this
aspect of school life the education of boys is incomplete; boys need to be encouraged to be self-
sufficient, and need to know as much about food, nutrition, fabrics, decision-making,
organization of time and all the other aspects of the subject as do girls. (Wynn 1983)
Arguably, there are other factors that discourage some boys from studying home
economics such as prejudice around sex roles. Kessler et al. (1987) acknowledge that ‘particular
kinds of behaviour, particular ways of being, are culturally dominant’. These patterns of
masculinity or femininity are presumed to be natural, and deviation from this norm attracts
ridicule and antagonism. Prejudice existed around changing sex roles during the 1970s and 1980s
and Attar (1990) reported how boys studying ‘recreational home economics’ were subjected to
‘taunts of homosexuality from their peers’ and ‘many people consider boys who enjoy cooking
rather ‘effeminate’.
Another unresolved sex contradiction is the significant discrepancy that exists between
exclusivity of women (n=1624) to men (n=4) working as home economics teachers in Ireland
(Teaching Council 2014). In essence, the subject is taught almost exclusively by women, who act
as role models and ultimately perpetuate the pattern. Paechter (2000) argues that home
economics teachers were ‘until recently inducted into this world through separate training
institutions’ and arguably led to the development of an ‘ultra-feminine ethos’. However in
Ireland, home economics education is not physically integrated into the university system. There
are currently two male pupils on home economics programme in Ireland, out of a total of 247
pupils (St. Angela’s College 2014). These statistics overall can hardly support the cause to rid
the subject of its

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