• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.19-42
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• 2020

The purposes of this study were to analyze the home economics(hereafter HE) curriculum in Victoria State, Australia, and to derive the implications for the HE curriculum in Korea. To accomplish the purposes, the contents of the curriculum were analyzed through the relevant web pages, and the actual conditions of the HE curriculum implementation were identified through e-mail and interviews with HE teachers and administrator. The results of this study were as follows. First, the HE curriculum for F-10 was one of the cross-curriculum resources based on the content descriptions and achievement standards of 'Design and Technologies' and 'Health and Physical Education' curriculum. Because the HE curriculum is competency-based curriculum and did not stipulate what was to be taught then, HE teachers had lots of autonomy in organizing and operating the curriculum, which led to the need for professionalism. Second, VCE subjects, both 'Food Studies' and 'Health and Human Development', which are HE elective curriculum for 11th and 12th graders, require students to take written tests produced by the VCAA. Because there are no specific details to be taught in the curriculum, the HE teacher had the need to devise and operate various classes to foster problem-solving skills, critical thinking skills, etc. Third, HE teachers had the discretion to create all the subject names, contents to deal with, and evaluations to prepare for the school curriculum, and thus were exerting their professionalism. This was due to the fact that the system was well equipped and VCE subjects were audited, even though teachers' performances were related to their individual competencies.