<p> Currently in Kentucky there is a shortage of applicants for filling vacant teaching positions, specifically Family and Consumer Science (FACS) teaching positions. There are more vacancies than there are teachers to fill the positions. This study&rsquo;s primary purpose was to determine the current working conditions, perceptions of working conditions, and changes that could improve satisfaction for FACS teachers. This research included a survey and three focus groups with FACS teachers in Kentucky. Through these methods, data was collected to identify the areas that could use improvement and how these improvements could be made. The results were that most teachers were very satisfied or usually satisfied. For an increase in satisfaction, teachers indicated smaller class sizes, more money, updated classrooms, updated equipment and more administrative support.</p><p>

Abstract not available.

The purpose of this thesis is to determine whether a relationship exists between the social service score of the Kuder Preference Record of home economics education majors and their Guilford Martin Temperament Trait scores.

Household food budgets offer a window on consumers' demand for convenience. During the 1980s and 1990s, three shifts likely promoted an increase in the share of the food budget devoted to convenient meal options, namely meals out and prepared foods: the growing number of hours that women spent in paid work, the growing opportunity cost of women's time spent doing housework, and the drop in the price of food relative to all other goods. I test whether the impact of these economic trends (on food budget allocation) was mediated by a change in the impact of children on household meal allocation. I find support for this hypothesis in a model of food away expenditures, which likely reflects two unmeasured shifts. First, (own) child care and household production of meals apparently became substitutes rather than complements. Second, a range of both prepared foods and family-friendly restaurants became available. The growing demand for time-saving meal options, including frozen food and meals out, has important implications for a core determinant of living standards: the ability to harness scale economies from home production of meals. I test whether greater reliance on convenient meals reduced household-level economies of scale. Other factors could mediate against, or even offset such a loss, including technological advances in the production and distribution of food. Using Engel curve analyses, I find that scale economies fell from 1980 to 2000, thereby reducing living standards; my lower- and upper-bound estimates of the drop are 44 percent and 110 percent respectively. Economies of scale are not simply a function of household size and composition, as standard equivalence scaling techniques suggest; they are affected by the ways that households trade non-market work and market substitutes. This dissertation contributes to the small literature that challenges the validity of fixed-parameter equivalence scales, such as the per capita scale, which ignore household production. I first attach plausible values to scale parameters and then compare equivalent-income trajectories of parents and non-parents across (standard) fixed parameter and (non-standard) time-varying equivalence scales. I present plausible lower- and upper-bound estimates of the rise in income inequality between parents and non-parents.

No description available.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 40-09, Section: A, page: 4930. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1979.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the intensified workshop as an approach for homemaking programs. The subjects in the study were 223 student teachers in education at four university and college sites in central California. There were approximately twenty-five subjects in each control and experimental group at each site. The experimental groups received two workshops on grooming and clothing selection. The two workshops for the control groups presented information on resume writing and interview techniques. Four instruments were developed by the researcher for the study. The Grooming and Clothing Selection Living Skills Perceived Competencies Survey I and II, the Grooming and Clothing Selection Rating Schedule, and the "Mock Interview" Rating Schedule were used to assess the effectiveness of the workshops. It was hypothesized that Survey I and II would not reflect a difference in the knowledge and perception levels of the subjects in grooming and clothing selection following participation in the workshops. The third hypothesis indicated that master teachers, college supervisors, school site administrators and the interview panel would not be able to observe a difference in the grooming and clothing selection skills of the two groups. The knowledge and perception test data was analyzed by a two-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and the rating schedules and the interview rating schedules were subjected to a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), with alpha set at .05 for each analysis. A Pearson Correlation was also used to assess the relationship between the observation groups. The findings revealed a significant difference in the grooming and clothing selection knowledge and perception levels of the subjects following participation in the workshops, therefore, hypotheses 1 and 2 were rejected. Observations to determine if the grooming and clothing selection items covered in the workshops were practiced during student teaching gave conflicting results. The college supervisors and the interview panel found a significant difference in the two groups, thus sections B and D of hypothesis 3 were rejected. The school site administrators found a slight numerical difference by group and by sex, but neither was significantly different statistically, therefore, sections A and C of hypothesis 3 were accepted.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to facilitate informed decision-making in the development of a curriculum guide for Massachusetts family and consumer sciences education programs by gathering new knowledge related to the National Standards for Family and Consumer Sciences Education (National Association of State Administrators of Family and Consumer Sciences·Vocational-Technical Education Consortium of States [NASAFACS·V-TECS], 1998). The three goals of this study were: (1) to determine the perceived importance of each of the 16 areas of study of the National Standards for Family and Consumer Sciences Education (NASAFACS·V-TECS, 1998) in meeting the national family and consumer sciences education vision, (2) to determine the perceived importance of each of the 86 content standards of the National Standards for Family and Consumer Sciences Education (NASAFACS·V-TECS, 1998) in meeting the national family and consumer sciences education vision, and (3) to determine how often each content standard is taught in local family and consumer sciences education programs in Massachusetts. The national vision states that: “Family and Consumer Sciences Education empowers individuals and families across the life span to manage the challenges of living in a diverse global society. Our unique focus is on families, work, and their interrelationships” (NASAFACS·V-TECS, 1998, p. 2). The descriptive survey involved data collection from a national population of head state administrators of family and consumer sciences and the population of Massachusetts family and consumer sciences education professionals. The study found that whereas the question asked respondents to identify six areas of study, the results indicated that seven areas of study were perceived as distinctly more important. Six of the seven family and consumer sciences education areas of study were selected as more important by both the head state administrators and the Massachusetts professionals. These areas of study were: parenting; interpersonal relations; human development; family; career, community, and family connections; and nutrition and wellness. The Massachusetts professionals included the early childhood, education, and services as one of the seven more important areas of study, whereas the head state administrators selected the consumer and family resources as one of the seven more important areas of study.

No description available.