Abstract:

The idea of home economics based on scientific knowledge and modern standards emerged in the nineteenth century, and from the middle of the century onwards, home economics began to be part of the curriculum of girls' schools as an independent course. As a scientific field of study, home economics defines scientific and pedagogical standards in many subjects related to home life such as the organization and physical condition of the house, house-cleaning, health issues, heating, dressing, raising of children, eating, table manners, and etiquette. In this way, it aims to increase professionalism and productivity at home. In the pre-modern Ottoman world, home economics, which was considered as a subject of ethics and covered as a chapter in the ethics books, began to be taken as an independent field in books and periodicals after the second half of the nineteenth century and was also taught as a course in girls' schools. Standards, discipline, order, rationality, pragmatism, and hygiene emerged as the major principles of this new version of home economics. This article focuses on the teaching of home economics as a science-based course in late Ottoman girls' schools as the educational policy of the state and examines the related textbooks, guidelines, regulations, and periodicals in this context. The article scrutinizes the place and weight of home economics courses in the curriculum of girls' schools and discusses the agenda and content of related curriculums and home economics textbooks in the context of the Ottoman modernization process and women's education.