The Role of Home Economics Education in the 21st Century - The Covid-19 Pandemic as a Disruptor, Accelerator, and Future Shaper

Oct 15, 2026

Explores how home economics education can remain relevant in the 21st century under the disruptive, accelerating influence of the Covid-19 pandemic. Connects the pandemic’s impact on five predicted global megatrends—globalisation, urbanisation, digitisation, cybersecurity, and sustainability—to a textual analysis of pre-pandemic home economics literacy publications. Uses Voyant Tool visualisations of Creating Home Economics Futures: The Next 100 Years, compares key documents, and outlines education priorities including food literacy, well-being, and rebuilding the home’s role.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages20

Reading Time50 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Global megatrends

doi: 10.26529/cepsj.1205 The Role of Home Economics Education in the 21st Century: The Covid-19 Pandemic as a Disruptor, Accelerator, and Future Shaper Donna Pendergast1 • This paper explores the role of home economics education in the 21st century. It commences with an explanation of the disruption to the five predicted future global megatrends – globalisation, urbanisation, digitisation, cybersecurity, sustainability – as a consequence of the global Covid-19 pandemic. The place of megatrends framing home economics is explored by presenting a textual analysis of a literacy publication created as an acceleration point for framing the next one hundred years of home economics and underpinned by global megatrends, published prior to the pandemic. Using the Voyant Tool, visualisations ofthe book Creating Home Economics Futures: The Next 100 Years are presented and compared to other key literary documents informing the field. The paper then turns to the ways in which education and learning have led to the repositioning of home economics as a field and home economics literacy as the key strategy for ensuring the field continues to remain relevant into the future. Priority areas for education include food literacy; individual, family and community well-being; and the reconstitution of the place of the home. Keywords: home economics literacy, Covid-19, global megatrends, food literacy, well-being 1 School of Education and Professional Studies, Griffith University, Australia; [d.pendergast@griffith.edu.au](d.pendergast@griffith.edu.au). Vloga gospodinjskega izobraževanja v 21. stoletju: pandemija covida-19 kot motnja, pospeševalka inoblikovalka prihodnosti Donna Pendergast • Članek obravnava vlogo izobraževanja na področju gospodinjstva v 21. stoletju. Začne se s pojasnjevanjem motenj petih pričakovanih globalnih megatrendov, tj. globalizacije, urbanizacije, digitalizacije, kibernetskevarnosti in trajnosti kot posledice globalne pandemije covida-19 . Vloga megatrendov, ki uokvirjajo gospodinjstvo, je raziskana in predstavljena na podlagi rezultatov analize publikacije o pismenosti, ki je bila zasnovana kot pospeševalna točka za uokvirjanje področja gospodinjstva za prihodnjih sto let. Temelji na svetovnih megatrendih in je bila objavljena pred pandemijo. Umeščenost megatrendov v okviru gospodinjstva je raziskano s predstavitvijo besedilne analize publikacije o pismenosti, ki je bila ustvarjena kot pospeševalna točka za oblikovanje naslednjihsto let gospodinjstva in podprta s svetovnimi megatrendi ter objavljena pred pandemijo. Z orodjem Voyant Tool so vizualno prikazani rezultatianalize knjige Ustvarjanje prihodnosti gospodinjstva: naslednjih sto let in primerjani z drugimi ključnimi dokumenti, ki oblikujejo to področje. Prispevek se nato posveti načinom, kako sta izobraževanje in učenje pripeljala do repozicioniranja gospodinjstva kot področja in gospodinjske pismenosti kot ključne strategije, ki bo zagotavljala, da bo področje ostalo relevantno tudi v prihodnosti. Prednostna področja izobraževanja vključujejo prehransko pismenost, blaginjo posameznika, družine in skupnosti ter rekonstrukcijo doma. Ključne besede: gospodinjska pismenost, covid-19, globalni megatrendi, prehranska pismenost, blaginja Introduction On March 11 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) (2020) officially declared a global pandemic. Since then, the Covid-19 pandemic has hada dramatic effect, not least of which is the clear demonstration of the fragility of human life, with more than 170 million infections and 3.5 million deaths in just over a year (Worldometer, 2021) and with no end in sight. The advent of this global pandemic is not without precedent, with many pandemics changing the course of human history over centuries, including leprosy; the Black Death, plagues, cholera, measles, the Russian, Spanish and Asian flus, HIV/AIDS and, in the 21st century, SARS ([History.com](History.com), 2020). One of the key strategies for reducing t

FAQs

What does the paper examine about home economics education in the 21st century?

It investigates the role of home economics education in the 21st century and how the Covid-19 pandemic reshapes the field’s future relevance.

Which global megatrends does the Covid-19 pandemic disrupt according to the paper?

The paper explains disruption to globalisation, urbanisation, digitisation, cybersecurity, and sustainability, and how these shifts evolve through the pandemic context.

What education priority areas does the paper identify for future home economics?

It highlights food literacy, individual/family/community well-being, and the reconstitution of the place of the home.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Mafia Boss