Introduction

“The basic tenet of the critical science approach is that people need to think about improving their living conditions rather than accepting and coping with their present conditions” (McGregor, 2003, p. 1). Critical science is based on the idea that families and individuals within families can be empowered to enhance their lives (Thomas, 1989). Although critical science is complex, we can begin by recognizing that it involves an ongoing process of making reflective choices and applying critical thinking skills to improve personal, family, and community life. Examples of critical thinking skills are abundant and include: questioning current conditions, uncovering meanings, logical reasoning, seeking evidence, clarifying values, engaging in dialogue, critiquing, researching, comparing alternatives, identifying ethical factors, and resolving contradictions (Gentzler, 1999; Montgomery, 1999; Plihal, Laird, & Rehm, 1999).

Key Terms to Know

Alternatives

Context

Critical Consciousness

Critical Science

Critical Thinking

FCCLA Planning Process

Perennial Problem

Practical Reasoning

Questioning

Valued End

Values

Four Key Words Defined

Critical science: an overarching viewpoint of the importance of learning through questioning, uncovering meanings and values beneath the surface, reasoning, seeking evidence, engaging in dialogue, critiquing, researching, comparing alternatives, making ethical choices, and taking responsible actions in order to enhance family life.

Perennial problem: Concerns of human significance that recur over time require thought and action, and are typically stated as concerns about “what to do” regarding family goals.

Valued end: a desirable state of affairs that families can achieve by examining existing conditions, reflecting on alternative options and choices, and acting to improve their lives.

Practical reasoning: A reflective process and set of steps or guidelines undertaken by learners to identify and clarify problems, examine meanings and set goals, interpret personal and social context, obtain needed information and skills, consider alternatives and compare consequences, and take action to promote positive family qualities and actions.

Critical Thinking Skills

Critical thinking skills are required to address a variety of concerns that impact family quality and recur over time. In critical science, these concerns are called “perennial problems” or “practical problems” (Brown, 1980; Hultgren, & Wilcosz, 1986; Montgomery, 2008). Perennial problems typically are stated as questions such as: What should our family do about meeting our nutritional needs? How should we provide emotional care for children? What should we do to be environmentally wise in our lifestyle?

Although the term “problems” may seem overly negative, perennial problems should be considered positively because they offer creative opportunities and continual improvements. Through examining existing conditions and alternative choices, families can reach a desirable state of affairs called “valued ends” (Brown, 1980; Plihal, Laird, & Rehm, 1999; Smith & Kienzler, 2003). Family members utilize numerous critical thinking skills as they strive to clarify what ends should be valued and how to achieve them (Montgomery, 2008; Olson, Bartruff, Mberengwa, & Johnson, 1999). Numerous individual considerations (financial capability, cultural background, health needs, developmental stage, etc.) and contextual considerations (community resources, historical structures, opportunity vs. oppression, ethical systems, justice, etc.) go into the process of achieving valued ends.

In order to fully address perennial problems, FCS learners can be taught critical thinking skills through a process called “practical reasoning” (Hultgren & Wilcosz, 1986). Practical reasoning includes a set of guidelines or phases by which students identify a concern of importance to families, clarify valued ends, interpret personal and social context, consider alternatives and compare their potential consequences, and take meaningful action to promote positive family and social structures (Brown & Paolucci, 1979; Morgaine, 1994; Rehm, 1999). Learners gain clarity on issues through engaging in practical reasoning, both as individuals and in dialogue with others. Later in this chapter, the practical reasoning process will be described more specifically and illustrated using FCS examples.

An Overview

Background Information

In their groundbreaking work titled Home Economics: A Definition, Brown and Paolucci (1979) proposed that FCS professionals should embrace a critical science approach to accomplish the mission to help families. The authors criticized the profession’s overreliance on using a narrowly technical approach to solve ongoing and complicated perennial problems. They argued that the technical approach focuses too much on what to think, using prescriptive rules that do not apply to existing realities and new challenges. Instead, Brown and Paolucci argued that the critical science approach is more appropriate because it focuses on how to think about complicated issues. For example, cooking nutritious food was traditionally taught as a technical skill using scientific knowledge. However, mere knowledge of facts and techniques cannot answer questions pertinent to the realities and context of culture, individual differences, resources, and opportunities available.

A number of thinkers in FCS education continued the critical science path opened by Brown and Paolucci by writing additional articles throughout the 1980s up to the present (e.g., Bubolz, 1985; Hultgren & Wilcosz, 1986; Plihal, 1989; Thomas, 1989). In 1999, Johnson and Fedje edited the 19th Annual Yearbook published by the Educational and Technology Division of the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences; this book was devoted to showing connections of theory and practice within critical science. In 2003, the journal, Kappa Omicron Nu FORUM, published several theme issues (Volume 14/Issue 2 and Volume 15/Issue 1) which included a “primer” of critical science by McGregor.

Relevant Research

Much of the scholarly work regarding critical science in FCS education has been conceptual or philosophical in nature. This type of research is intended to explain, illustrate, or elaborate the approach or specific ideas within it. For example, Baldwin (1990) studied and conceptualized family empowerment as an interactive process with moral and political links. Plihal (1989) argued that a critical science approach attends to “strong” thinking skills whereby learners examine power relationships, the historical development of social conditions, contradictions inherent in ideologies, the importance of engagement in political action.

Some scholars have conducted qualitative studies, defined as research regarding themes of meanings and qualities: what people say (often through interviews), what they do (through observations), and what they write (content analysis of journals or diaries, for example). FCS classrooms have been popular as settings for researchers who wish to observe and analyze teaching strategies and resulting student work—which have revealed specific teaching strategies that enhance critical thinking. Qualitative research provides evidence that debates, critical incidents, active listening activities, writing, comparison of alternatives, questioning, and communities of inquiry can be used to stimulate critical thinking skills (Smith & Kienzler, 2003). Team projects have been documented to help students understand other viewpoints and clarify personal viewpoints (Smith & Kienzler, 2003; Thin, 2003). Students as young as seventh graders have used critical thinking when deciding what to do about real-life situations such as being pressured into drinking alcohol, cheating, smoking, or other risky choices (Smith & Schlautman, 1994).

Research has found that roleplaying promotes empathy, the ability to relate different solutions to different contexts, and less judgmental attitudes. For example, Klemme and Rommel (2003) assigned each student in a college class to a specific role in a simulated family in poverty. The researchers found that the experience of playing a role helped students become more open to alternative viewpoints, revise personal assumptions, and in other ways become more critically enlightened about the issue of family poverty.

Case studies offer another effective way to stimulate critical thinking. Fox (1997) found that a case study about a family facing the choice to move or stay due to a job offer generated critical thinking skills when making an important decision. Students not only learned useful technical information such as interest rates and closing costs the family would face if they changed housing, but they also were able to consider different consequences from the perspective of each family member. Students developed skills to use varied sources of information pertinent to the family and employment context, clarify personal ethics, and show compassion for others. Thin (2003) similarly found that case situations in the hospitality industry enabled students to show compassion and concern about people, look at different sides of typical workplace issues, move from being overly individualistic to being inclusive, identify ethical components, think more about long-term consequences, and identify new sources of information to use in problem-solving.

One important research finding is that students are more likely to embrace and excel at critical science when instructors adopt an open disposition, show habits of questioning, create relational learning situations, include social critique, and actively model practical reasoning (Eyre & Peterat, 1990; Fox, 1997). By being in the habit of critical thinking themselves, teachers foster concern for the ethical effects of choices. Overall, research suggests that the critical science approach can be challenging but is powerful for teaching students how to make reflective choices that significantly affect their lives (Smith & Schlautman, 1994; Thin, 2003). Unfortunately, little quantitative research—which relies on numerical data and statistical patterns from surveys of large samples or formal experiments—has been conducted. Hopefully, future quantitative researchers will identify numerical relationships between a variety of critical science elements and FCS education.

A Rationale for Implementing the Critical Science Model in FCS

Education is practiced in postmodern society where complexity reigns and multiple viewpoints often compete. Even a basic perennial problem such as “what should be done about meeting the nutritional needs of my family” entails a constellation of factors such as family needs, food safety, social issues such as GMOs, costs of healthy food, varied ways to obtain meals, family culture, and multiple others. FCS educators cannot be content to give simple “right” answers about multifaceted family issues ranging from housing to financial planning. The tremendous diversity of learners (Allison & Rehm, 2011) implies that we must help them identify their own needs and goals, analyze and critique their situations, obtain necessary skills and resources, communicate with others for common decisions, consider alternatives and their consequences, and take actions in a way that is meaningful (Brown, 1980; Gentzler, 1999; Laster, 2008).

Families also face evolving problems that are new and with which individuals and society have little experience (Montgomery, 2008) such as concerns about the effects of the ever-changing electronic environment on the family. Solutions to new perennial problems require abilities beyond factual and technical “how to” knowledge. Critical science provides FCS teachers with a sophisticated and flexible approach to help students develop skills to meet unexpected challenges (Bubolz, 1985; Fox, 1997). “The environment in the family and consumer sciences classroom lends itself to providing students with the real-life concerns as a basis for practicing the use of the basic tools of inquiry” (Smith & Schlautman, 1994, p. 10).

Elements/Defining Characteristics

Suitability for FCS Courses

As Eyre and Peterat (1990) stated, FCS educators “provide experiences which offer tremendous potential for students to engage in the higher-level cognitive processes involved in individual reflection and social critique” (p. 6). The perennial problems of families such as “what to do about” nutrition, housing, financial resources, and rearing children lend unlimited questions and many topics applicable to FCS courses. Critical science is suitable for FCS courses because knowledge is carefully justified, dialogue with others is used to generate varied perspectives and understanding of differences, and action is taken in order to create meaningful family life amidst complicated conditions and challenges. Technical knowledge such as basic budgeting or childcare principles is not completely abandoned, but it is put into the context of students’ cultures, resources, and other factors. Critical science is also suitable for FCS career programs. Although preparation for culinary arts or child care services requires technical knowledge and skills, workplace realities also require that students identify problems, look at different sides of an issue, consider alternative solutions with different consequences, and practice ethical action (Thin, 2003).

Advantages and Disadvantages

The critical science approach offers many advantages for both teachers and students. Given the increasing diversity of FCS students (Adams, Sewell, & Hall, 2004; Allison & Rehm, 2011), teachers can use critical science to initiate the essential process of dialogue about different experiences and shared meanings (Hultgren & Wilcosz, 1986). Critical science is flexible in that ideas and actions can be adapted as new information becomes available, insights deepen, or situations change. Critical science prepares students to ask many questions, exchange ideas, seek evidence, and enhance connections through dialogue and teamwork.

One disadvantage is that critical science is challenging for teachers and students; it requires openness to new ideas and ways of teaching. It can be discomforting to change taken-for-granted assumptions, and it is easier for students to remain passive while the teacher provides information and maintains control. Authentic assessments of learning—using documents such as portfolios, work products, or service-learning performance evaluations—are needed but require time and careful attention. School districts and states set forth their own (sometimes technically based) standards that must be met, leaving less opportunity for the process of discovery associated with critical science.

Implementation Guidelines: The Practical Reasoning Process of Critical Science

By now readers might be convinced that the critical science approach is valuable, while remaining skeptical that it is just too complicated for a pre-service or newly hired teacher to apply it in the daily work of educational settings. Fortunately, the practical reasoning process includes a general set of guidelines to help teachers incorporate student-centered learning and numerous thinking skills (Hultgren & Wilcosz, 1986; Laster, 2008; McGregor, 2003). Practical reasoning can be viewed as a process that unfolds in a logical fashion, yet it can be adapted in many creative and individualized ways appropriate for the student’s, situation, setting, and topic. Below is one format for practical reasoning, realizing there are various alternatives that new teachers can utilize and adapt.

1. Identify and clarify a perennial problem to study.
   • Before students can address a perennial problem, they must become conscious that there is a problem, issue, or concern (Laster, 2008). The teacher can introduce a perennial problem by sharing related materials or situations such as a case study, news article, picture, story, video, and/or discussion. Students can also be asked what existing gaps or needs they notice in their environment, or a critical event can be used to challenge their assumptions (Klemme & Rommel, 2004). Once a concern or issue is identified, a question about “what to do” can be stated as a perennial problem and will provide a focus for a lesson or unit of any length. For example, after reading statistics and viewing a video about the power and extent of social media on the quality of relationships, learners in a course on family relationships might be interested in “what to do about the quality of family relationships and modern technologies such as the Internet, cell phone, and/or texting issues. “

2. Become critically literate or critically conscious by examining meanings, values, valued ends, and other information related to the perennial problem.
   • Teachers then should continue to draw upon various teaching methods so that students delve into the problem. The teacher can add activities—readings, discussions, journals, multi-media activities, case studies, research, news stories, observations, team projects, presentations, interviews of individuals, observations of their family and technology use, or guest speakers or panels, etc.—intended to increase students’ critical consciousness or literacy about the concern and its context. For example, students might write an essay or create a collage to examine their own feelings and experiences about what technology means to them or how it relates to their families. To gain insight on the extent of the issue, they could research statistics on family time spent using technology, reasons for using technology, outcomes of the technology, impact on family activities, etc. Students could examine different perspectives on the issue of family relationships and technology: economic, health and safety, interpersonal, personal freedom vs. responsibility, legal issues, government policies, or parent and child differences (McGregor, 2003). As students deepen their understanding of the current state of the issue by engaging in such learning experiences, they will begin to compare the existing conditions of “what is” with the ideal conditions of “what could be.” Valued ends are likely to come into more clarity and can be set as goals students want to achieve. Continuing with our example, students might determine that they want to create a personally and socially valued end whereby families utilize technology positively to strengthen their relationships but in a way that avoids dangers and does not interfere with physical or mental health.

3. Critique the personal context of the perennial problem.
   • The focus in this step is to support students in becoming more critically conscious of their internal factors so they can make necessary changes, utilize their strengths, and work to become more empowered. Personal obstacles could include vague assumptions, personal biases, doubts, fears, weaknesses, or gaps in knowledge and skills. Personal strengths could include skills, interests, guiding values, persistence, special knowledge, and positive habits of thinking and acting. Students should be asking questions like: Where am I in terms of reaching the valued end? In what positive and negative ways am I moving toward achieving the valued end? What does it mean to me? What are my taken-for-granted assumptions? What am I doing that is getting in the way of reaching the valued end? Students should be able to identify patterns within their personal spheres in order to build on strengths and address needed gaps. Classroom strategies used to support self-reflection and critique might include journal writing, personal inventories of weaknesses and strengths, interest inventories, comparison of good and poor habits, dialogue with key family members, posting thoughts on a class blog, reports, discussions, or plans for lifestyle changes. The goal is to help students reflect not only on personal meanings but to become responsible and empowered with new information and skills to reach valued ends (Morgaine, 2004). In terms of technology and the quality of family relationships, students could record a daily diary of their family patterns of technology use along with reflective comments about the related quality of family communication. Some students might recognize they spend too much time with social media at the expense of talking with family members and decide to limit time with technology. Other students might begin to use technology to build positive relationships with distant family members rather than spending aimless time “Internet surfing.”

4. Critique the external context of the perennial problem.
   • At the same time that individual students work to change personal habits and improve family life, they also are embedded in a historical, social, and political context. This phase focuses on guiding students in analysis and critique of social trends, cultural influences, economics, political systems, and other external factors that affect their families. The goal is to help them recognize how society affects them and how they can make an impact on society. Although the idea of external factors may seem distant, learners who are younger or not yet familiar with practical reasoning can explore familiar social contexts such as their school, neighborhood, or youth group. Activities that involve students in social interactions—site visits, service projects, field trips, collaborations with local agencies or other groups, discussions around news stories, working with families on specific projects, investigating community agencies and resources, panels of community leaders, case studies related to social life and the perennial problem, service-learning or volunteering in the community, and others—can be used to generate interpretation and critique of the social context (Klemme & Rommel, 2004). One tenet of critical sciences is the necessity of coming together for common purposes (Brown, 1980; Laster, 2008). Powerful learning can accrue when students engage with others in a community, compare different options that are being carried out within a community, and collaborate with others on projects that improve family life. As students learn to understand others based on their perspectives and research, they can begin to compare possible alternatives and outcomes as well as visibly participate in making a difference in their surroundings.  Teachers can stimulate contextual understanding and critique by helping students to ask questions such as: How has the Internet’s effect on the family progressed over time, and what are current patterns? How does technology hinder and facilitate society in terms of family relationships? What policies or legalities pertain to technology use among family members? To answer such questions, students might develop an original survey questionnaire to discover how much time family members of students at the school spend using various technologies. They could conduct library research and analyze social trends regarding reasons social media interferes with family life, or they could examine a legal case showing how questions about technology and family life are being answered in the courts. As they see gaps, benefits, and areas of oppression or freedom, they can begin to think about how they can contribute to society and reach valued ends.

5. Examine alternative ways to achieve valued ends, possible means of accomplishment, and likely consequences of each alternative.
   • At this phase, students will have gained not only relevant facts and skills but also insights and understanding of how perennial problems are situated in communities. Students now should have enhanced personal and social knowledge to suggest possible alternatives to address the practical problem: Should the situation stay as it is? What would be the impact? What is one alternative to change the situation, with what means, and with what consequences? What is a second alternative, with what means, and what consequences? Students can continue engaging in learning experiences if they find they need further information. For example, in studying technology and the quality of family life, one alternative might be to develop a family-based educational program to share research-supported ideas for incorporating technology in positive ways. Various means could be education within a community agency, a local forum, at the school, or online. Students might logically predict a positive consequence that families who participate will implement new ideas and rules for using technology that improve communication within their family unit. However, this would only help families who participate. Another alternative could be to return to a more traditional society by ceasing to use social media or technology and using the time for family get-togethers. However, student research might indicate that very few are likely to consider this option given the pervasive nature of technology for personal use, necessity for school success, and role in modern careers.

6. Create a plan of action, take action, and evaluate the action.
   • Throughout the above steps in the practical reasoning process, students will become more insightful regarding the gaps between what should be and what is and able to justify solutions based on relevant research. The goal is to enable them to take actions for empowerment and work together to create a valued end. Teachers and students can choose one alternative as most valuable, and subsequently take actions individually and collaboratively to create desired changes. For example, a class could create an educational fair at school, whereby small teams produce various educational formats and materials such as an Internet website with information, an article summarizing research, a list of apps that bring families together, or demonstrations. Once the action has taken place, students need to evaluate the effects on individuals, families, and community: Have families changed any of their technology practices as a result of participating in an educational fair? Have they tried a relationship-building application, and what was the result? Have more families had the opportunity to gain education pertaining to technology and their quality of life? In summary, the practical reasoning process provides a blueprint for using the critical science approach in the classroom. It is important for new teachers to realize that learning critical science and using practical reasoning are ongoing, and they must use creativity and knowledge to meet the needs of students. Success comes with the desire to model an open attitude, to help students develop abilities to solve problems, and willingness to try new ideas. The Practical Reasoning Help Sheet at the end of this chapter provides one outline that can be used by teachers and/or students to plan lessons or units. Readers also are encouraged to consult “think sheets” from Fox (1997) and Laster (2008).

FCS teachers also can help students develop specific habits of critical thinking in a community of learning throughout the practical reasoning process. A few of the critical thinking skills include:

• Questioning multifaceted aspects of a problem or concern is perhaps the central skill in practical reasoning (McGregor, 2003; Montgomery, 2008). Why are things the way they are? Is change needed? What are valued ends in comparison to current states? What is the effect of personal and social context? What is enabling freedom, autonomy, and responsibility? What is manipulative, inaccurate, incomplete, inconsistent, or controlling?
• Engagement in meaningful dialogue is a central mode of coming to common understanding about social ends. Thus, teachers emphasize cooperation, reciprocity in the community, and participation in social action throughout the practical reasoning process (Fox, 1997).
• Critical consciousness is a skill that enables students to recognize that a practical situation could be improved and leads to understanding how they can play an active role in creating change (Laster, 2008).
• Provision of factual, moral, and practical evidence is necessary to justify choices and actions (McGregor, 2003).
• Generative, divergent thinking enables students to compare alternative perspectives, understand others, and create new ideas.
• Critique of the self and societal elements enables detection of hidden messages, biases, and assumptions.
• Making connections enables students to re­late current problems to historical and politi­cal factors.

For new FCS educators, critical thinking skills can be introduced gradually and are continually developed as confidence and experiences increase.

Implementation of the Model with Different Classes, Students, and Situations

The practical reasoning process provides unlimited options for FCS teachers. It can help students determine what to do about overarching nutrition or housing needs; it is equally useful for narrowly focused topics such as what to do about genetically modified foods as a family or what to do about obtaining a job in child care services. All students, regardless of culture, class, or gender, need to answer important perennial problems for themselves and contribute to improvements in society.

For example, FCS teachers believe that diversity contributes to a positive and dynamic society, but they often feel inadequate in the extent of their knowledge about different cultures or lifestyles (Adams, Sewell, and Hall, 2004; Rehm & Allison, 2006). By enabling students to identify problems and issues within their own experiences, the practical reasoning process of the critical science approach offers a way to give students power to meet their needs in their own ways. It offers a process that encourages sharing, exchange of information, understanding of different perspectives, and working together to create positive and inclusive social conditions.

Examples (What This Looks Like in the Classroom)

We have used a family relationship quality and technology example. Let’s view a few additional examples to demonstrate the flexibility of the practical reasoning process. Assume that citizens in a community are concerned about the nutritional health of the youth. A teacher of FCS could take the critical science approach to help students evaluate nutrition practices and act to improve wellness in their own lives and in their communities. At a middle school level, a teacher could introduce a short unit on nutrition by directly proposing a perennial problem: What should be done about nutritional choices at home and school?

Second, the teacher would help students gain critical consciousness about the general nutritional habits of youth, their personal eating experiences, and types of societal messages about food and nutrition. Learning activities could include reading current research on why nutrition is important and the state of nutritional health among young adolescents, observing advertisements regarding eating and identifying healthy or unhealthy nutritional messages, and conducting a study of student’s eating habits over a week in the cafeteria.

The teacher then might facilitate exploration of meanings of foods in relation to how nutrition is part of students’ daily lives. Students could write about meaningful food experiences, analyze if nutrition is involved, and reflect on personal choices and social messages. Perhaps students could work in small groups to create a poster expressing nutrition facts and social meanings that affect nutritional habits. Once students have identified facts and meanings related to nutrition of young adolescents, they should be able to set some goals (decide on valued ends) for nutritional health at home and at school. For example, they might be concerned about research indicating their peers are eating too much fat, salt, and sugar and throwing away vegetables and other healthy foods from the school lunch or from their own packed lunches. This could lead to a valued end or goal of the class to improve the nutritional value of the lunchtime habits at their school.

Third, in order to achieve their valued end of positive nutritional habits, students would need to identify the current personal context. They could analyze nutrition-related factors with a three-day record to gather data on their personal lunch habits: What foods are eaten and how much in terms of quantity and time taken? With whom are foods eaten? What thoughts or feelings are associated with eating lunch? They would then need to analyze the data, perhaps using a nutrition analysis computer program to identify nutrient deficiencies and adequacies, as well identify factors such as time and frequency of eating that could affect nutrition. They could then research one or two nutrients where they are doing well and predict how they will benefit in years ahead; they also could research nutrients where they are inadequate and predict how this could affect long-term health and lifestyle. In order to improve, they might need to gain additional information or recognize a need to change some type of behavior. Students might also prepare a nutritious low-fat recipe for a nutrient-rich lunchtime food.

Fourth, the students would assess the external context of their nutritional habits. The teacher might ask them to note at least three things in their environment that influence their eating, decide if each influence has negative or positive nutritional value, and explain why. Students could also research nutrition as a social activity by reviewing existing research or by surveying their peers at school about their eating habits to identify the most problematic patterns of young adolescents. A dietician might be invited to speak on nutrition and youth. Students might take a field trip to analyze food labels on various products available, or to evaluate marketing techniques in grocery stores and fast food restaurants.

Fifth, such information would enhance their understanding enough to consider several alternative ways to make changes and help their peers improve their nutrition. One idea might be to develop a theme issue on nutrition for the school newspaper, with potential consequences of educating students (but missing students who do not read the newspaper). Another idea might be to develop a website, with the advantage of using a modern format to educate in an interactive format, but with the disadvantage that not all students will access the website. Through discussion, they might conclude that a school-based nutrition week would allow small groups of students to develop various print messages, posters, educational performances, and multimedia to promote nutrition education and awareness to a variety of types of students. Sixth, the students would work in teams and carry over the nutrition week projects, ending with a survey to evaluate the effectiveness.

A high school or adult education nutrition teacher could also use the practical reasoning process but with more depth and focus. Given the students are older, they might be concerned with specific problems related to obesity. Students might consult news stories and recent statistics. They could divide into teams to study obesity, examine modern family life, explore food options in culture, and engage in debate about reasons for the problem. They might discover that reasons for obesity are many: lack of time for preparation, indulgent parents, lack of high quality but low-calorie foods in restaurants, and lack of nutrition education. Alternative solutions might be to advocate for healthy and low-calorie items at local fast food restaurants, develop a nutrition booklet to leave in local grocery stores, or develop a healthy food website for their peers. The students themselves would make the decision, taking responsibility to create positive change in their environment.

Throughout the process, both the middle school and high school teacher would ask students to think critically using questions such as: What are the factors contributing to nutrition status of youth? What factors detract? Should society care about nutrition, or is it a personal choice? Why? What information is truthful and what information is deceptive? What solution will benefit most families regardless of economic or educational status? Answers to questions could be pursued in a variety of ways with journals, discussions, reflective essays, research papers and presentations, debates, educational posters, collaborations with community groups, etc. Teachers could also integrate questions about economic costs, distorted information, and power imbalances (for example, do fast food producers target youth unfairly through the media?

Classroom Extended Learning and Accommodation Activities

Critical science is readily extended beyond the classroom. Students can be encouraged to work with their families to reach a valued end of significance and participate in the practical reasoning process in their homes and neighborhoods. Students can work on service projects or volunteer outside the classroom to meet a need within a community. Critical science also readily accommodates students with special needs because it focuses on making needed social changes. For example, a student with a physical disability might study not only how to adapt his or her home in the most appropriate way, but could advocate ways to improve access in homes for others with similar challenges.

Participation in Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) is an excellent way for learners to actively engage in personal and community improvement beyond the classroom. For example, the National Outreach Project offers a format for FCCLA members to partner with another organization to critically reflect on a need, create dialogue to ascertain potential strategies of action, and transform the context to achieve a valued end. The FCCLA Leadership Service in Action program is another option that can guide students in developing critical consciousness, identify a practical problem, and develop the technical and communication skills needed to carry out projects that improve life in their communities. The program encourages young people to develop impeccable character traits needed to provide a solid foundation for communicating with others, respecting diversity, being open to several alternatives, forming shared meanings, and solving perennial problems. Indeed, FCCLA members have for many years developed critical thinking skills through using the FCCLA Planning Process (identify concerns, set a goal, form a plan, act, and follow up) to solve problems and improve family, career, and community life (www. fccla.com).

Summary

The critical science approach is applicable in real situations and with perennial problems faced by students, their families, and communities. Many FCS teachers are already engaging students in critical science as they teach them to become critically conscious of problems in their social settings, become familiar with personal and social meanings of issues, seek varying perspectives, consider alternatives, make reflective choices, consider information and values, evaluate consequences on the self and others, and take change-oriented actions independently and collaboratively. The critical science approach offers a model for FCS teachers who seek to help students participate in creating needed changes. The best way to gain understanding about the critical science approach is to jump in and try it.

References

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Laster, J. (2008). Nurturing critical literacy through practical problem solving. Journal of the Japan Association of Home Economics Education, 50, 261-271.

McGregor, S. L. T. (2003). Critical science—A primer. Kappa Omicron Nu FORUM. 15(1). Retrieved from http://www.kon.org/archives/forum/forum15-1. html

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