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Nurturing an ecological perspective in PEI home economics education : a narrative self-study

McIntosh, Sarah Kathleen

There is a need for critical and ecological perspectives in education in order for educators to gain the capabilities to respond to the realities of climate change and the resulting calls for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and sustainability education. The topic of this graduating paper incorporates an ecological perspective in home economics. Eleanore Vaines (1990, 1997) proposes home economists strive towards a reflective professional practice grounded in an ecocentred philosophical orientation. An eco-centred home economics practitioner holds an ecological world view where “everything is related to everything in some way” and the teacher is a learner among learners “empowered to facilitate emancipatory action” (Vaines, 2004a, pp.142- 143). I have searched for ways to interweave the context of my practice with educational theory and work towards a pedagogy that supports the goal of developing of an ecological perspective in home economics. I present my search as narrative self-study where I share my journey of becoming a reflective home economics teacher. After reviewing the literature on an ecological perspective and outlining what it means in terms of curriculum and pedagogy, I critique my practice using three critical incidents to show how a weak understanding of a sense of place and controversial issues were an impediment to implementing ecological material effectively. I subsequently research these two aspects that are related to the implementation of an ecological perspective in more depth in order to make recommendations for home economics educators who might find themselves in a similar situation.

Text

University of British Columbia. EDCP 590

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0437745

Education, Faculty of; Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of

Graduate

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