Family and consumer sciences: overview and applications

¶ … American Home Economics Association, the precursor to the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, was founded in 1909 by Ellen H. Richards, the first female graduate of MIT (AAFCS 2003). Richards' goals in life and with the organization included creating a more educated consumer and bringing greater attention to public health and safety concerns (AAFCS 2003). Her attempts to apply scientific and management principles to the day-to-day operations of the typical family eventually led to the formalization of family and consumer sciences as a scholarly filed and profession, and today the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences has more than seven thousand members who attempt to exert influence on public policy and strengthen communities and families through extensive education programs designed to improve the quality of life for American families (AAFCS 2003).

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The International Federation for Home Economics is the only international organization devoted to home economics and consumer studies, and serves as a network organization for many smaller organizations involved in he furtherance of family and consumer sciences (IFHE 2009). The Federation is organized into five regions -- Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas, and the Pacific -- with each region under the leadership of a Vice President elected by the members of the Federation (IFHE 2009). Through publications, the International Federation for Home Economics attempts to coordinate the gathering and dissemination of information pertinent to family and consumer sciences (IFHE 2009). The Federation also has consultative status with the United Nations and with the Council of Europe (IFHE 2009).

The International Federation for Home Economics hold several important meetings on an annual, biannual, and quadrennial basis (IFHE 2009). The next IFHE World Congress is scheduled to take place July of 2012 in Melbourne, Australia, and is the largest meeting the Federation sponsors (IFHE 2009). A Council Meeting takes place a year from now in Ireland, and will include the election of several officers in the Federation; the most recent Leadership Meeting took place earlier this year in Kingston, Jamaica, and no information is currently available on the website as to the next planned Leadership Meeting (IFHE 2009). Membership in the organization for individuals, including students, costs forty Euros a year and is open to anyone (IFHE 2009). Membership includes access to the Federation's publications and the ability to attend some meetings, with the possibility of affecting policy (IFHE 2009).

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Certification through the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences is the first step of professional development within the Association (AAFCS 2003). Becoming certified allows an individual to use the title and designation of CFCS (Certified Family and Consumer Scientist), which opens up a much wider arena of employment and career opportunities and stands as a testament to the individuals commitment to continued growth and learning in the field of family and consumer sciences (AAFCS 2003). It also helps to formalize the discipline by increasing the rigor of the standards of the Association in the eyes of the public (AAFCS 2003).

There are several steps to becoming certified, but it is still a very straightforward process. First, a baccalaureate degree in family and consumer sciences or a highly related field is a minimum requirement, and advanced degrees are highly encouraged (AAFCS 2003). Candidates for certification who have achieved the minimum education requirements must then take the National Family and Consumer Sciences Certification Exam, which consists of one-hundred and fifty multiple choice questions to be completed in a three-hour time limit (AAFCS 2003). Study guides for the Exam are available through the Association (AAFCS 2003). Successful completion of the exam, which can be taken either with paper and pencil or electronically at any of the many testing centers nationwide, results in certification that is good for three years (AAFCS 2003). In order to maintain certification, a candidate must complete seventy-five professional development units (PDUs) every three years, submitting applications for prior approval of these units based on the activities the candidate is engaged in, and must apply for a renewal of their certification (and pay the fee) after certifying their PDUs (AAFCS 2003).

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Accreditation through the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences is for educational institutions and departments what certification is for individual students and professionals (AAFCS 2003). The Association examines the standards and practices of the family and consumer science program that has applied for accreditation in order to assure the quality of the program, which benefits the educational community and the public at large by providing an external rubric and stamp of approval (AAFCS 2003). Ultimately, the accreditation program run by the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences is meant to continually strengthen and improve education and in the family and consumer sciences (AAFCS 2003).

The exact standards used by the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences Council of Accreditation are not published online, but the Association is recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation as a Specialized Accrediting Agency, meaning that it meets rigorous national standards of evaluation and must hold the institutions to which it grants accreditation to the same standards (AAFCS 2003). The criteria used by the Association's Council for Accreditation are continually updated, remaining contemporary and relevant through all progress and evolution of the family and consumer sciences (AAFCS 2003). Accredited programs are also reevaluated continually in order to maintain their accredited status as required by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (AAFCS 2003).

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Ellen Richards, who formalized the study and practice of home economics and founded the American Home Economics Association (later the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences), was born Ellen Henrietta Swallow on December 3, 1842 in Dunstable, Massachusetts (Bois 1997). Her education began at home, where she assisted her parents with the farm work and with other household chores and was schooled in academics by her father. When her family moved to Westford, Massachusetts in 1859 she began attending the Westford Academy, which made up her only pre-collegiate formal education (Bois 1997). She taught elementary school in Littleton, Massachusetts, where her family moved in 1863 and her father ran a store. Richards continued to read and educate herself during her time as a teacher, as well as learning the practical necessities of commerce by helping in her father's store (Bois 1997).

Richards began attending Vassar College in 1868, and graduated with a B.S. In 1870 (Bois 1997). She then began attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the first woman ever to do so, though she was admitted as a "special student in chemistry" meaning neither she nr MIT had any obligation to each other. In 1873, she received a second B.S. from MIT as well as an M.S. In chemistry from Vassar, and despite continuing her studies at MIT for two years she was never awarded a Ph. D. (possibly because the school did not wish their first doctorate in chemistry to be awarded to a woman) (Bois 1997). In 1875, she married MIT mining engineering Professor Robert H. Richards, and her work with him analyzing ore led to her election to the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, another first for womankind (Bois 1997). Richards was a strong advocate for women in the sciences, and was also engaged in many pubic health pursuits through her scientific knowledge.

Other major achievements of Richard's life include her founding of the New England Kitchen in 1890, which provided low-cost nutritious food and food preparation instructional classes to working class families (Bois 1997). She also instigated school lunch programs and domestic science courses in Boston public schools, and organized the Lake Placid conference in 1899 (bois 1997). The aim of this conference was to define standards of teacher training and certification in the field of home economics, and under her continued leadership the conference members eventually formed the American Home Economics Association (Bois 1997). Richards was president of this association until her death in 1911, at which point she had also started the Journal of Home Economics and been awarded an honorary Ph.D. By Smith College (Bois 1997).

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Kappa Omicron Nu is an honors society for students in the human sciences (KON 2009). The purpose of the organization, as with most honor societies, is to promote and reward academic excellence and leadership achievement, specifically in the human sciences (KON 2009). Benefits of membership in Kappa Omicron Nu include a national network of colleagues in the human sciences, scholarship and grant award eligibility, subscriptions to the organizations publications, enhanced employment eligibility and opportunities, and a general sharing of knowledge (KON 2009). In order to obtain membership in Kappa Omicron Nu, undergraduate students must have completed 45 semester hours or units towards a declared major in the family and consumer sciences and be in the top 25% of their class (KON 2009). Graduate students must maintain a GPA of 3.5 and have completed 12 units towards their advanced degree in the human sciences; membership invitations are extended by local chapters to eligible candidates and full membership requires verification of the eligibility requirements (KON 2009).

One article in a past issue of the Kappa Omicron NU publication Forum explored the real-world teaching of service learning as a tool for involving students in their community. The study had the established goal of making clear the practical applicability of the academic learning in family and consumer sciences, and the necessity of community involvement for students in these programs and other human science specializations, as well as for families who put family and consumer sciences to use every day (Leach 1998). As my specialization is family studies, much of the research and findings of this study are directly applicable to my own planned career in family and consumer sciences.

The article provides background by detailing the connection between family and community, which is "the family's more immediate external environment" and, if properly engaged, a solid source of support both materially and emotionally for the home economist (Leach 1998). The author goes on to describe a course she was teaching in consumer resource management, and a particular service-learning project she introduced to the class both to foster direct and immediate community involvement and to demonstrate to the students -- or rather, to have the students demonstrate to themselves -- how effective and beneficial community involvement in the family and consumer sciences can be (Leach 1998). The study found that such service learning projects not only had a large immediate effect on the community, but also that the students were highly engaged with the work and learned lasting lessons (Leach 1998).

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Another professional and scholarly organization in the field of family and consumer sciences is the Family and Consumer Science Education Association, a voluntary group run under the auspices of the Central Washington University but which works closely with other organizations, including the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, on a national level (FCSEA 2009). Much of their efforts go into affecting public policy through their relationship with the Family and Consumer Sciences Coalition (FCSEA 2009). As a smaller organization, FCSEA meets during larger conventions of the AAFCS, and votes on issues and officers via mail ballots (FCSEA 2009).

Many states also have independent Family and Consumer Science Associations that are affiliated with the American Association of Family and Consumer Science but which also conduct their own operations and research, have their own (usually highly comparable) standards of instruction and practice, and produce their own unique publications. The National Council on Family Relations is another national group related to a specialized field within family and consumer sciences, and produces several publications on relevant topics and continuing research (NCFR 2009). The organization serves as a forum for researchers, educators, and practitioners of family and consumer sciences as they relate to ongoing family relationships, as well as engaging in direct operations to promote familial well being in the United States and to set professional standards for practitioners of family and consumer sciences (NCFR 2009). The National Council on Family Relations is more a professional organization than an academic one, but provides information useful at all levels of study and practice.

In an article from the current issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family, one of the Council's publications, the results of a new study concerning paternal involvement in the rearing of children born outside of wedlock are published in brief. The study shows that fathers are unlikely to visit their children born outside of marriage if the mother has developed a new romantic relationship with another man (Carland-Adams 2009). This is especially true if the new romantic partner cohabitates with the mother and engages in child-rearing activities, and is especially likely if the relationship is formed early in the child's life or infancy (Carland-Adams 2009). Evidence form this study suggests that visitation and involvement from the biological father, regardless of the presence of a new father-figure in the child's life, is of unique benefit to the child and should be encouraged (Carland-Adams 2009).

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Both the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences and the National Council on Family Relations have published ethical guidelines for practitioners of family and consumer sciences at large and for the members of these organizations specifically. The AAFCS's Code of Ethics is quite brief and to the point, whereas the National Council on Family Relations has far more detailed and specific guidelines for the education and practice of family and consumer sciences (AAFCS 2003; NCFR 2009). Both groups cover largely the same ground in their ethical codes and guidelines, but the AAFCS's approach is much more holistic and could be applied to many professions, disciplines, and endeavors, while the guidelines adopted by the NCFR's Board of Directors is quite purposefully and directly limited to the ethics necessary in the specific practice and education of the family and consumer sciences.

The emphasis in the AAFCS's Code of Ethics is on upholding the standards of professionalism common to most disciplines -- maintaining confidentiality, a dedication to perpetual learning and improvement in the field, and a faithfulness to acting with "intelligence, commitment, and enthusiasm" in the practice of family and consumer sciences (AAFCS 2003). The NCFR ethical guidelines contain far more specific exhortations and prohibitions, such as refraining from exerting undue influence through coercion and manipulation even when attempting to alter the behaviors of a family or individual (NCFR 2009).

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The Justin Smith Morrill Act of 1862, also known as the 1862 Land Grant Act, was a piece of federal legislation that granted federal lands to each of the states and territories for the purpose of building educational institutions that would teach agriculture, military tactics, classical studies, and the mechanic arts to members of the working class in an effort to raise the quality of life and the effectiveness of current standards and practices in farming and food production in general (Cornell 2009). Though liberal educations were also offered at these institutions as mandated by the Morrill Act, the primary aim of this act -- and the 1890 Morrill Act which granted land for the establishment of black universities in the decades following the Civil War -- was to provide a practical education to working class individuals and families (Cornell 2009). This education would enable them to lead better and more productive lives through advancements in technology and knowledge, and to change the distrust of academics common in rural areas (Cornell 2009).

The relationship of these Land Grant Acts and the institutions that resulted from them to the study and practice of family and consumer sciences is not immediately apparent. The formalized study of the family and consumer science discipline was not established until some decades after the grants, and the emphasis in the schools was on farming techniques and technologies more than nutrition and other more recognizable features of the more modern discipline. The agricultural and mechanical instruction at these schools did allow for the development of family and consumer science as a formal discipline, but the land grant institutions were even more essential for their social impact. Such institutions made education, even in common tasks, something accessible and with obvious benefits, allowing for the spread and development of family and consumer sciences.

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The term "environment" is still fairly simple in its most basic definition, and yet this words has come to mean many different things depending on the context and perspective of its use. In the area of family and consumer sciences, "environment" typically refers to the circumstances surrounding the behavior of an individual human being and/or a family of individuals (Jrank.org 2009). This still does not completely define environment in the context of family and consumer sciences, however; "environment" can still refer to the external physical realities of a situation, to human constructs of reality including social patterns and prohibitions, and even internal and individual constructs of reality that may or may not permit certain options (Jrank.org 2009). The term "human ecology" has been proffered as an appropriate replacement of "home economics" as the study of the latter subject has evolved into a rigorous scientific discipline that covers a much broader range of human sciences and studies of behavior than were originally and traditionally considered under the scope of home economics (Jrank.org 2009).

Simply put, the theory of human ecology, or human ecological theory as it is also known, examines human attitudes, thoughts, and behaviors from the basic belief that human beings are a product -- in whole or in part -- of their environment (Jrank.org 2009). Though this may perhaps seem blatantly intuitive to today's students and educators in the human sciences, and indeed is one of the earliest truly scientific theories of the family and individuals, it was not formally proposed even in animals until German zoologist Ernest Haeckel suggested in 1869 that a branch of science be developed that studied organisms in their environment, and the effects that the two had on each other (Jrank.org 2009). This led to a markedly different approach to the life sciences, leading to the development of environmental sciences and ecological studies, and when applied to humans to sociology and other sciences.

The discipline of home economics, which solidified in the decades following Haeckel's observations, made extensive use of ecological theories (Jrank.org 2009). The basic components of ecological theory -- environment and organism -- are inherent to the study of any living thing, but home economists saw the immediacy of the practical implications this relationship had on their discipline, and were among the first to develop a theory of human ecology (Jrank.org 2009). The theory has grown more complex with the study of the family as a system within the larger environmental system, which exerts influence on individuals and on the environment even as both of these forces influence the family, as well (Jrank.org 2009). There are also other systems at work in the theory of human ecology, such as the community system and the overall economic system -- something we are all too familiar with (Jrank.org 2009).

The specific discipline of family studies within the broader science of family and consumer sciences is primarily concerned with how the family can improve the living standards and quality of life through the interrelationships that exist within that family. Improving the functionality of individuals fulfilling certain familial roles is a key goal in the study and practice of family studies, and such improvements can improve the quality of life for each individual member of the family and the family as a whole. Without the proper and effective coordination of family members in their respective roles, improvements in the functionality of the family as a unit -- and thus in the quality of life of the family and its individual members -- is difficult to achieve. This is why the understanding of the family provided by the human ecological theory is still such a vital part of family and consumer sciences.

This conception of human behavior and the family as a system is essential to a modern understanding of family studies and the issues encountered in the discipline. The theory of human ecology examines how the various systems an individual is a part of interact, and in a larger perspective the family is scene as a microsystem within the larger system of the community, the economic system, political system, etc. (Jrank.org 2009). Efforts by families and to improve their quality of life, including the nature and quality of the relationships that exist between the individual members of the family, is best understood in this context of interacting and hierarchal systems; the more efficient and effective the microsystem of the family is, the more easily the members of that family -- particularly the children developing within the family -- can deal with the larger systems they will interact with as adolescents and adults (Jrank.org 2009). This, in turn, makes the larger systems function more effectively, which provides better support for smaller systems such as the family, etc., etc., etc. (Jrank.org 2009).

In this way, the theory of human ecology has direct implications on improving the quality of life for families. An education in family studies must necessarily examine the family as a system; though this is not the only way to approach family studies, it is one of the most comprehensive. Though it is not always the most appropriate theoretical framework to bring to bear in family and consumer sciences, human ecological theory provides what is arguably the most extensive and well-integrated explanation of how individuals and families operate.

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Though all study and practice in the realm of the family and consumer sciences has the same general target of improving the quality of life for individuals and families in mind, the various disciplines that fall under the umbrella of the "family and consumer science" label have very different foci and methods of accomplishing this goal. Part of what makes the study and practice of family and consumer science the formalized and rigorous scientific discipline that it is the integrated nature of these disparate elements of the science. Each separate discipline has several points of inextricable interaction with the other disciplines, and none functions independently from any of the others. Mush of this has to do with the way the family system operates according to human ecological theory; no part of the system of the family or any of the larger systems at work in a society and the world at large operates independently, and a change in one part of the system creates differences and adjustments in the other constituent parts of the system and the system as a whole. The study of these different aspects of family and consumer science, then, cannot be undertaken single-mindedly.

Of the several sub-disciplines typically identified within the family and consumer sciences, Apparel Design and Merchandising seems at first glance to be the least necessary to the average family in the modern age. Few families still wear home-made garments; even the making of Halloween costumes and other traditional home-made articles of clothing that persisted well into the age of cheap, mass-produced textiles has fallen off in recent decades. Yet the skills developed, taught, and practiced in Apparel Design and Merchandising are still highly relevant, especially for families on a budget. Clothing is one of the most basic human necessities, and even style has a large degree of importance in an individual's functionality in society. Knowing how to look at and work with clothing and apparel is an important family function.