Home economics education: exploring integrative learning

Abstract

Background: The latest curriculum reforms in Finland have shifted the aims of education towards learning how to learn, and the secondary education sector is already required to teach integrative skills. This study seeks to understand how these curricular demands can be fulfilled in the context of the subject of home economics in secondary education through an integrative approach to learning. This approach integrates knowledge from different school subjects to help students gain a broader perspective, thereby helping develop integrative thinkers with interdisciplinary skills. The study adopts the sociocultural learning approach, focusing on the tools used in learning – material tools, psychological tools and other humans as tools.Purpose: The purpose of this study is to answer the following research question: What kind of tools and pedagogical arrangements support an approach to learning in home economics lessons that integrates other school subjects?Methods: The data were collected from three Finnish comprehensive schools in the form of audio and video recordings of five different home economics lessons that followed the principles of integrative learning. The collected data set underwent a qualitative content analysis.Results: The results describe the variations in home economics lessons in terms of their implementation, supportive tools and pedagogical arrangements used in the learning tasks. Analysis indicated that all three kinds of tools – material, psychological and other humans – were used to support the integrative approach to learning. The pedagogical arrangements supporting the integrative approach to learning were identified as differing in terms of who led the integration; whether the integration was based on knowledge, skills, experiences, methods or materials; whether the pupils from different subjects were mixed in a meaningful way; and whether the objectives and themes of the lesson were of an integrative nature.Conclusion: The study suggests that differences in the integrative implementations of the lessons can complement each other; however, this is the case only if the integrative nature of the lessons is clarified to the pupils.

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