Instructional guide for teaching, learning, and developing home economics in the classroom and home, K-12.

The surprising, often fiercely feminist, always fascinating, yet barely known, history of home economics. The term “home economics” may conjure traumatic memories of lopsided hand-sewn pillows or sunken muffins. But common conception obscures the story of the revolutionary science of better living. The field exploded opportunities for women in the twentieth century by reducing domestic work and providing jobs as professors, engineers, chemists, and businesspeople. And it has something to teach us today. In the surprising, often fiercely feminist and always fascinating The Secret History of Home Economics, Danielle Dreilinger traces the field’s history from Black colleges to Eleanor Roosevelt to Okinawa, from a Betty Crocker brigade to DIY techies. These women—and they were mostly women—became chemists and marketers, studied nutrition, health, and exercise, tested parachutes, created astronaut food, and took bold steps in childhood development and education. Home economics followed the currents of American culture even as it shaped them. Dreilinger brings forward the racism within the movement along with the strides taken by women of color who were influential leaders and innovators. She also looks at the personal lives of home economics’ women, as they chose to be single, share lives with other women, or try for egalitarian marriages. This groundbreaking and engaging history restores a denigrated subject to its rightful importance, as it reminds us that everyone should learn how to cook a meal, balance their account, and fight for a better world.

What are the prerequisites for reforming education, and how can these reforms be seen in school development and culture? How should teacher education support this reform process? What are the principles and practices underlying the functioning of the schools of tomorrow? These questions are examined in this unique volume. The authors in this book argue that the central function of teacher education and education in general is to respond to the challenges brought on by the twenty-first century. According to this approach, the competencies and skills needed in the future are not merely a new addition to school activities, but rather something requiring a comprehensive reform of school culture encompassing teacher education, curricula, and teaching methods. Such a fundamental process of change in the action and thinking models used by schools would be an effort to achieve a complete transformation, the result of which would be schools developing into organizations that are both creative and imbued with a strong sense of community. A central attribute is that the creation of new knowledge is not just restricted to the classroom but also takes place in out-of-school environments. This would link learning to its natural context, eventually leading to an ideal instruction that is actively problem oriented, holistic, and life centered. This reform-minded volume is divided into three parts. The first part focuses on the reform processes in teacher education, the second on the reforms of pedagogics at schools and teacher education institutions, and the third on the processes of reculturing schools. New prospects for active schools in the United States and Europe, as well as in Japan and China, are discussed.