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Abstract

Home economics is a field of practice that has had many influences and conceptual innovations over the years. These influences include social responsibility in its many forms (McGregor, 2009), such as socio-practical education (Timpson, 1979), working for human basic needs (Turkki, 2005), and taking on a global perspective (Smith, 1990). Given the field’s focus at some level on social responsibility, service-learning is an avenue for home economics to expand upon its social roots by drawing from the servicelearning literature that is widely practiced and comprehensively researched. This paper is a philosophical inquiry into the connections that can be made between home economics and service-learning with the goal of defining practices that are already in place and improving them through sound foundational grounding. The vision of service-learning that I argue is most appropriate for home economics is one that is based on an understanding of the pedagogy and philosophy that connects the two fields.