Hille Janhonen-Abruquah appointed as Professor of Home Economics

– Everyday life can occasionally be rough. When our personal finances and relationships go smoothly, life is wonderful. But if we run out of money or face a global or domestic crisis, our lives can suddenly be shaken to the core, says Hille Janhonen-Abruquah, Professor of Home Economics.

During such times, we need everyday life skills and creativity. 

– The past few years have been very unusual, and everyday life has been rather unpredictable. The coronavirus pandemic and the energy crisis have changed the way we spend our time at home, and tips for saving electricity, for example, have become incredibly valuable.

Home economics skills are necessary at every stage of life, but the ability to adapt them to changing circumstances is especially important in times of crisis. 

– That, and keeping the home and personal environment cosy for everyone despite all the challenges. Basic skills related to housing, food and cleanliness help make everyday life meaningful in a sensible way. Home economics has an important role in this, explains Janhonen-Abruquah, who started work as Professor of Home Economics at the University of Eastern Finland at the beginning of the year.

Well functioning and joyful everyday life

The coronavirus pandemic forced everyone to stay at home for a time. According to Janhonen-Abruquah, our everyday life skills kept us going during that time. 

– We started baking our own bread, ordering groceries online and redecorating our homes. Then we made posts about our activities on social media and shared the joy with others. This is exactly the kind of everyday creativity that I greatly appreciate.

We are living in the midst of various societal changes, so sticking to a single way of doing things is not sensible. Instead, we need to remain agile in our everyday life. 

– In my opinion, we in home economics have a responsibility to teach and spread knowledge about the skills relating to this kind of agility. But individual people also have a personal responsibility to teach skills to their own children and to the people around them. Everyday life rarely goes smoothly, but we have various means for making it well functioning and safe – and, of course, joyful.

Home economics skills are also important for primary school pupils

For the aforementioned reasons, Janhonen-Abruquah wishes that home economics teaching would begin in primary school. The current curriculum enables this, but at the moment only a few primary schools teach home economics.

– This is largely because universities in Finland don’t have the resources to train class teachers for home economics. I think this is a missed opportunity; building the basics of everyday skills in food, nutrition, personal finances and responsible living should already be started in primary school.

These topics are occasionally touched on in other subjects, but home economics differs from those subjects by its hands-on approach.

– Studies in primary school could begin with preparing delicious snacks, cleaning one’s sneakers, or with any other topic that is relatable and important for the pupils’ everyday life.
One benefit of home economics is that it can be easily combined with other subjects.

– Home economics could support the study of larger entities or phenomena in primary schools: History lessons on a certain time period could be complemented by cooking food from that era, and wild herbs studied in biology classes could be used in cooking during home economics classes.

Bringing home economics to social media

Janhonen-Abruquah wouldn’t want cross-curricula collaboration to be limited to basic education alone. Home economics could also cooperate extensively with other fields of education at universities. 

– Our studies can easily be linked to topics where everyday life is present in one way or another. 

Janhonen-Abruquah would also like home economics to achieve greater visibility in social media. Instructional videos and tips on everyday life skills are shared on social media every day. Content related to things like food, cleaning and saving money is very popular.

– Information gained through these experiences is a great resource, I’m not denying that. However, I would like home economics to also gain stronger place in social media. After all, home economics experts have a comprehensive understanding of everyday activities as daily life consists of endless, overlapping and intersecting activities, not only single tricks.  

Understanding these overlapping processes and receiving guidance from experts could therefore be more helpful for many people than specific instructions on limited topics. 

Increased diversity skills for teachers

During her career, Janhonen-Abruquah has been involved in a variety of international projects and worked, for example, as a home economics teacher in a general upper secondary school in Ghana. 

– Home economics might sound quite domestic – but after all, the world is filled with households. So it has been great for me to expand my perspectives and see how households around the world operate and solve everyday challenges. 

Janhonen-Abruquah has also helped develop the education of home economics teachers from the perspective of cultural diversity and gender-related thinking. 

– Diversity is a resource for human interaction. It forces us to change the normal ways of doing things. The diversity skills of home economics teachers consist of identifying diversity and of actively reducing inequality.

A concrete example of this is taking pupils from different cultures into account when teaching home economics. Janhonen-Abruquah wants home economics teachers to see that the cultures of pupils from different backgrounds are a resource in teaching at schools.

The concept of family has also become more diverse over time. Family was previously understood as the traditional nuclear family, but the concept has now expanded in many ways.

– Family is starting to be seen as a community of people who choose to stay together but change over time. Family consists of the people who are important at a given stage of a person’s life. This is also an interesting change in current times, and I hope that extended concepts and standards of family will be better considered in school education. 

Gender normativity should also be shaken up and perspectives should be expanded. 

– My work here is only beginning, but I am already pleased to note that here at the University of Eastern Finland, at least, work for equality and equity is concrete and visible. 
 

HILLE JANHONEN-ABRUQUAH

• Professor of Home Economics, University of Eastern Finland, 1 January 2023–
• Doctor of Philosophy, University of Helsinki, 2010
• Master of Education, University of Helsinki, 1991

KEY ROLES

• Professor of Home Economics Pedagogy, University of Helsinki, 2021–2022
• Docent in Home Economics and Home Economics Education, University of Helsinki, 2018
• University Lecturer in Home Economics, Consumer Education, University of Helsinki, 2010–2021
• Long career as a teacher in vocational education, university of applied sciences, in basic education and liberal adult education.

Photos:     
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