Teaching and Learning Food & Textiles in Samoa

The purpose of this book was to investigate how FTT teaching and learning has been implemented in the secondary schools in Samoa. The perspectives and experiences of four teachers, four students and four parents were explored through making explicit the discourses they operated in. By exploring these discourses, teachers may be better able to understand the ways that FTT curricula are conceptualised and be informed about how their own practice in the classroom may reflect and be shaped by particular beliefs and values. The study highlights the complex issues involved in implementing curriculum and suggests alternative approaches to teacher professional development that may begin to change teacher practice from within. This chapter will summarise the key themes and implications that emerged from the study, discuss the on going professional development of teachers, suggest implications for the educational programmes as a better way of life,and the appropriate use of low cost materials and the quality resources distributed to schools. It is important to enhance the contribution and recognition of FTT to the culture of Samoa are necessary if FTT teaching is to achieve its purpose.

Faamoemoe Hakai Soti is a teacher by profession and I spent more than 10 years teaching at the secondary schools in Samoa.I also spent more than 15 years working at the Curriculum Division, Ministry of Education Sports and Culture(MESC).Currently, I am a lecturer Grade 1, for Food & Textiles Technology at NUS.