The process of overcoming difficulties faced by novice home economics teachers in elementary schools

The purposes of this paper is to ascertain the difficulties faced by novice home economics teachers in
elementary schools and the process for overcoming those difficulties. Our methodology uses the Trajectory
Equifinality Model (TEM) to analyze interviews conducted with three newly hired home economics teachers at a
public elementary school in H City in fiscal 2014.
When they first assumed their posts, the three teachers had not been uncomfortable teaching classes in home
economics, but after gaining the support of other teachers, they reached the point where they were eager to teach
home economics classes the following year based on what they learned during their first year. The teachers
experienced various challenges during that time. Teacher A had problems mainly with practice classes; Teacher B
had problems mainly with how to deal with the students; and Teacher C had problems with practice classes, lecturetype
classes, and developing relationships with the students. Although the difficulties experienced by the three
novice home economics teachers differed depending on their attitude toward home economics and conditions in the
workplace, ways to overcome these difficulties consisted of the following three points: the building of a support
system for discussions about home economics; the building o f a s ystem t o f acilitate a better understanding of
students’ actual lives; and the creation of a system that encourage participation in training.