Leadership integrated curriculum for junior high school family and consumer sciences students

The purpose of this study was determine the effect of the integration of leadership development opportunities using a practical problem framework emphasizing childhood obesity on the self-perceived leadership practices of junior high school students. To assess the impact, a quasi-experimental research design was used. Five groups of ninth grade Teen Living students in four different schools in Northern Idaho participated. Teen Living is an exploratory Family and Consumer Sciences course offered to ninth grade students in Idaho. To create a connection between leadership development and the developmental needs of early adolescents---physical, intellectual, and socioemotional---junior high school family and consumer sciences curriculum affords students the opportunity to solve real-life problems. This study incorporates the current social issue of childhood obesity by utilizing resources developed by the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences in partnership with the Charles F. Kettering Foundation. The "Sizing Up America: Public Policy Obesity Deliberation Guide" (Williams, Hartough, Miles, & Braun, 2005) was used by junior high school students to deliberate the issue with parents/guardians, peers, and community members in order to outline strategies that could be used to reduce childhood obesity. Prior to and upon completion of participating in the treatment or traditional curriculum unit, students completed the Student Leadership Practices Inventory-Self (Kouzes & Posner, 2006). Once data were collected, data analysis focused on student attributes, the reliability of the Leadership Practices Inventory-Self, and correlation between the pretest total LPI scores and student attributes, and the impact of the curriculum and integrated public forum on the LPI posttest scores. Findings related to the curriculum impact on LPI posttest scores indicated that the experimental leadership curriculum appeared to account for 12-20 percent of the differences in LPI posttest scale scores between the experimental and control groups. Based on the findings of the current research, it is evident that the integration of a leadership opportunity into a family and consumer sciences junior high nutrition and wellness curriculum increases the development of leadership practices by ninth grade students.