| he purpose of this descriptive correlational study was to identify the characteristics of recommended state home economics curriculum documents as well as establish the focus of these documents, and identify the philosophical curriculum orientations of home economics leaders across the nation. Five curriculum orientations conceptualized by Eisner (1985) were studied: academic rationalism, technical, cognitive process, self-actualization/personal relevance, and social reconstruction/critical consciousness. A mail booklet consisting of three instruments was mailed to all 397 home economics teacher educators and 127 state supervisors listed in the 1993-1994 national directory of Home Economics Division of the American Vocational Association.;Findings from the survey showed that 55.6% of the states responding (n = 26) had state mandates for competency based curriculum, and that the majority of recommended home economics curriculum documents are centered around the cognitive process orientation with competencies promoting thinking and problem solving learnings.;Findings from this study also show that the majority (76%) of home economics leaders agree with the cognitive process curriculum orientation. However, results from t-tests indicated a statistically significant difference in the cognitive process curriculum orientation between the teacher educators (M = 5.0) and state supervisors (M = 4.73; p... |
