Finnish Home Economics Teachers Enabling Sustainability and Consumer Skills for Young People

Today, teachers around the world face the challenges of the ecological crisis. In Home Economics, ecological as well as economical viewpoints are intertwined in teaching. In Finland, sustainability education is integrated into different subjects as well as in transversal competencies in the curricula. Our study sheds light on how Finnish Home Economics teachers view themselves as sustainability and consumer educators and how they collaborate with teachers of other school subjects. Based on quantitative (N=153) and qualitative (N=256) survey data, we argue that teachers emphasize sustainable food education and that they teach consumer and sustainability skills broadly, varying themes from clothing to housing and spending. Teachers acknowledge their key role as consumer educators and consider young people well motivated regarding sustainability and consumer themes. Teachers prefer to cooperate with social studies, mathematics, and crafts on consumer education and with biology, social studies and crafts on sustainability education. The study indicates that the education of Home Economics teachers should be developed to provide more tools for teaching future sustainability and consumer themes.