Purpose. The purposes of this study were to study the perceptions of the faculty and students of Kwara Colleges of Education to determine the current attitudes regarding the image of home economics and to identify and compare the perceptions of the faculty and students in Kwara Colleges of Education in the areas of definition, usefulness, curriculum, importance, and educational structure of home economics.
Methodology. The instrument for collecting data was developed by the researcher and distributed to a sampling of 80 faculty members and 500 students in Kwara Colleges of Education, Nigeria. The faculty and students responded to 38 statements arranged on a Likert-type scale categorized into subscale areas of: (a) definition, (b) usefulness, (c) curriculum, (d) importance, and (e) educational structure. Demographic information about the faculty members and students was also gathered. Statistical treatments included frequency counts and percentages, T-test and analysis of variance.
Results. Teacher educators and the students in the Colleges of Education at Ilorin and Oro have favorable attitudes toward home economics, and that there were no statistically significant differences in the attitudes concerning the definition, usefulness, curriculum, importance and educational structure of home economics. The teacher educators and students in both institutions have low positive attitudes toward the educational structure of home economics.
Teacher educators and students in the College of Education, Ilorin have higher favorable perceptions toward home economics education than the teacher educators and students in the College of Education, Oro. Findings revealed that female teacher educators at both institutions have higher positive attitudes toward home economics education than male teacher educators.
Conclusion. Based on the analysis of data, the researcher concluded that: (1) The Colleges of Education at Ilorin and Oro should work cooperatively to improve the image of home economics education. (2) The students in both Colleges should be given continued up-to-date information on home economics education in order to further their understanding of the relevance and importance of this educational program.
