The need for a reconceptualization of a core curriculum in undergraduate home economics education: A theoretical-critical examination of major historical issues and practical concerns in the field

This study employed dialogical reasoning to explore a critical understanding of the nature of the core curriculum in home economics education in order to propose its reconceptualization to better enable home economics educators to fully achieve our mission. The problems faced by our field are identified: (1) dominance of technical rationality which has fragmented knowledge in home economics and the field into many specialized areas of home economics; (2) our lack of clear direction due to the lack of rational conceptualization of the field; and (3) the breakdown of communicative systems of action on the critical issues in the field among professionals.;A critical understanding of the consequences of carrying out these problems in our practice without critical reflection was gained from Jurgen Habermas's theory of modernity. We have learned from his theory that the fragmentation of consciousness has resulted from the dominance of technical rationality and the permeation of exploitative economic and political power in the everyday human lifeworld. This has implications for the development of the field in general and the structuring of educational programs to prepare the future generation of home economics professionals, in particular.;The search for a body of knowledge that could be organized into a type of a core curriculum was seen as the possibility open to educate professionals in the field to understand clearly the nature and mission of home economics. This study sought to reconceptualize the nature of the core curriculum by examining it in the broad contexts of the human lifeworld, in general, and in education, in particular.;This study ended by proposition of a general conceptual framework for the core curriculum. The author reconceptualized the nature of a rational core curriculum with three interrelated criteria: the integration of theory and practice, the integration of faculty members as scholars, and the integration of substantive contents and modes of inquiry. Each criterion is proposed as an integrative process rather than as an independent element of a core curriculum.