• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.29-49
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to look at families as presented on the technology-home economics subject of middle school. To do this, I analyzed the 2007 revised curriculum of the technology-home economics subject, 'Changing Families,' in 11 technology-home economics textbooks (8th grade). The findings are as follows. First, family-related chapters are expanded compared with the previous curriculum in the 2007 revised curriculum. In addition, the new version emphasizes understanding and acceptance of change in families to improve the family life of adolescents. Second, in the 11 types of technology-home economics textbooks, the focusing was on the meaning of the family, the family structure, the function of the family, family roles and family values. There were also no major differences in the aspect of development. Third, in the technology-home economics textbooks, the family was defined as the 'basic group of society', 'a group composed by blood relationships, marriage and adoption', 'an affective group' and 'cohabiting group'. At the same time, there were many cases in which the description of the family was overly romanticized. Such a description of the family does not match the individual family experience of an adolescent. Fourth, all of textbooks dealt with the diversity of the family structure, such as single-parent families, remarriages families, and multi-cultural families. However, the structural characteristics and problems with these types of families are excessively emphasized, which can result in students having stereotypical images of specific family types. Fifth, the explanation of the function of the family was similar among textbooks. The importance of intergenerational cooperation and gender equality was also emphasized. However, such a concept is not considered as proper in a modern society. Thus, the description of a family based on the nuclear family should be sublated. In addition, the explanation of families overall should be developed in such a way that adolescents can interpret their own family experience rather than as an enlightening declaration of the family which disregards the dynamic relationships individual families actually experience.