DEVELOPMENT OF CLOTHING MERCHANDISING CURRICULUM FOR INTEGRATION INTO HOME ECONOMICS EDUCATION PROGRAMME OF UNIVERSITIES IN SOUTH-EAST NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

This study developed a clothing merchandising curriculum for integration into the Home Economics Programme of Universities in South-East Nigeria. Specifically, the study sought to: determine specific objectives of clothing merchandising curriculum; determine content of clothing merchandising education, determine delivery system to be used in teaching clothing merchandising curriculum; determine the evaluation activities to be adopted for assessing the achievement of the objectives of clothing merchandising; develop a draft clothing merchandising curriculum  based on the findings from specific purposes 1-4; validate the draft clothing  merchandising  education developed  and  revise  the  draft  clothing  merchandising education based on feedback from the evaluation. Four research questions and four hypotheses tested at 0.05 level of significance guided the study. The study adopted the Research and Development (R and D) design. The study was carried out in five phases as follows; Phase 1: Determination of the important clothing merchandising skills, knowledge and attitude needed by Home Economics students. Phase II: Determination of the components of clothing merchandising to be developed, Phase III: development of the draft clothing merchandising curriculum, Phase IV: Validation of the draft clothing merchandising curriculum, Phase V: Revision of the draft clothing merchandising   curriculum. The study was conducted in the South-East zone of Nigeria. The population was made up of 18,857  respondents namely: 31

Home Economics Lecturers, 60 Final Year Home Economics students, 36 marketing lecturers,

30 Business education lecturers and 18,700 clothing merchandisers. The entire population was used except for a sample of 20 clothing merchandisers purposively drawn to participate in the Focus Group Discussion (FGD). Three instruments were developed and used to collect data for the study namely the Clothing Merchandising Curriculum Questionnaire CLMCQ and two Focus Group Discussion Guides (FGDG). The CLMCQ was face validated by three experts from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient index was used to determine the internal consistency of the instrument and it yielded an overall coefficient of α= .88. The draft clothing merchandising curriculum developed was validated by nine experts namely; two Home Economics Lecturers, two Business Education Lecturers, two Marketing Lecturers, two Curriculum experts and a clothing merchandiser. Mean and ANOVA were used to analyze the data collected. The findings included; 23 objectives of clothing merchandising education, 29 content of clothing merchandising education, 34 delivery system and 19 evaluation activities for assessing the achievement of the objectives of clothing merchandising education.  There  were  significant  differences  in  the  mean  rating  responses  of  Home Economics lecturers, marketing lecturers and Business Education lecturers on four objectives of clothing merchandising. Post –Hoc was carried out on these items and it revealed that the source of difference was the Marketing lecturers. There was however no significant difference in the mean rating responses of Home Economics lecturers, Marketing lecturers and Business Education lecturers on 23 out of the 27 objectives, 31 content, 34 delivery system and 19 evaluation activities of clothing merchandising education. Based on the finding it was recommended among others that (1) curriculum planners should utilize the clothing merchandising curriculum developed by this study to review the current Home Economics programme and integrate it into the programme (2) government should provide loans to Home Economics graduates to  enable them establish and run their own clothing merchandising business upon  graduation,  (3) Home Economics lecturers should organize workshop to up-

date their knowledge and go for in-service training in clothing merchandising and related fields of study.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

University  graduate  unemployment  including  Home  Economics  graduates  pose serious threat to individuals, families and the society. Unemployment especially for graduates of universities is one of the factors that have contributed to poverty in the country (Igbo,

2001). National incidence of poverty shows that the poverty rate in Nigeria is 78.30 percent (National Bureau of Statistics (NBS),  2007).   The  Federal and  State  governments have continued to put various poverty alleviation programmes in place such as poverty eradication programme, National Directorate of Employment (NDE) among others. The challenges of poverty however, still remain unabated (Oyekami, 2000). The situation has been attributed to various factors including lack of entrepreneurial skills which can empower graduates for self employment and self reliance (Anyakoha, 2001). This high rate of unemployment among university graduates has prompted a renewed call on entrepreneurship especially in vocational courses in Nigeria.    Entrepreneurship education has therefore become a mandatory subject for undergraduates including Home Economics students in Nigerian Universities (Lemchi,

2005). Home Economics undergraduates should acquire sufficient saleable entrepreneurial skills  prior  to  graduation so  that  they can  enter  into  entrepreneurship and  become  self employed since, a Home Economics graduate is expected be a job creator and not a job seeker.  In addition to the general entrepreneurship education courses for all students, it is vital that Home Economics students be given appropriate opportunities to acquire specialized technical skills in those areas of study that hold enormous entrepreneurial opportunities for them.  Clothing and textile education an area of Home Economics is one of such areas.

Clothing and textile education is one of the key areas of Home Economics that has the potential for  equipping  students with entrepreneurial skills  for  numerous entrepreneurial opportunities (Adebayo, 2008). The clothing aspect is concerned with knowledge, skill and attitude needed to  design and construct garment while the textile component deals with knowledge  of  different  fibres,   fabrics,  textiles,  principles  of  clothing  selection  and maintenance (Igbo, 1989). Clothing and Textile is made of both theoretical and practical components and as with other areas of Home Economics it is skill oriented.  The clothing industry offers jobs at all skill levels (Wolfe, 1998).  This is attributable to the ever evolving new products, fashion and methods of clothing construction. The increasing need for clothing and its accessories has in turn continuously created various opportunities for employment. Clothing and textile industry is thus one of the industries that employ the greatest percentage of workforce (United States Bureau of Labour and Statistics, 2010). Clothing and Textile contribute to employment in developed as well as developing countries, particularly in regions where paid employment may be difficult to find (Iloeje, 2007).   The clothing and textile industry is therefore labour intensive and has been recognized as the largest employer in the world (Jarrow and Dickerson, 1996).  Studies have revealed up to 45 lucrative clothing and textile  occupational areas  where Home Economics graduates can  engage  in  (Anyakoha,

1986). One of such occupational areas is clothing merchandising.

Merchandising refers to all the decisions that go into the selling of a product or service (Weber, 2003).  These decisions include what to sell, who to sell it to, how the clothing item will be packaged and displayed and the price at which the product will be offered to the consumers, among other activities.  Clothing merchandising include all the activities involved in the planning, buying and selling of clothing items (Wolfe, 1998). It entails all activities

aimed at bringing clothing goods and services to the market place, selling strategies, profit making and record keeping.   Merchandise on the other hand is used to describe the products and services that a merchant offers to the target market (Kotler and Armstrong, 2001).  It is thus product or service meant for sale and is capable of giving the consumer satisfaction. Clothing  merchandising  therefore,  entails;  idea  generation,  planning,  promotion,  selling, buying and distribution of clothing and textile products and services to the consumers (Hasty and Reardon, 1997, Troxel and Stone, 1981).  It is a means of maximizing sales using product design, selection, packaging, display and pricing to  stimulate consumers to  spend more. Clothing merchandising simply put is therefore the skills and knowledge involved in the buying and selling of clothing goods and services.  Numerous Clothing articles and items can be merchandised and these include; fabric, garment for different individuals, ages and sex, clothing accessories like; hat, belt, shoes, bags, jewelries, items for household use and furnishing,  soft  toys  among  others.  This  consequently,  creates  enormous entrepreneurial opportunities for the clothing merchandiser.   The place of clothing as a basic human need makes these opportunities very important and viable.  Clothing merchandising exists as large, medium and small scale enterprises.   Such enterprises exist in varying forms for assorted components of clothing in both urban and rural areas of the country including the south-east zone of Nigeria.

The   preliminary   study   carried   out   by   the   researcher   showed   that   clothing merchandising is one of the major trades engaged in South-east zone of Nigeria in the form of apprenticeship system (Appendix B). This is as a result of many commercial cities in south- east zone of Nigeria that engage in Clothing merchandising at informal level. The clothing merchants include adult male and female above eighteen years of age. The study revealed that

these clothing merchandisers engage in various activities. These include among others; procurement, packaging, promotion, pricing, and display (Appendix B). The study further revealed the competencies required for success in each of these activities (Appendix B). It was also gathered from the study that the major goal of these clothing merchandisers is maximizing sales and profit making.

These clothing merchandisers also train apprentices and impart the secrets of the trade to them informally through observation, and on- the- job training. In the formal educational institutions  especially  Universities  in  Nigeria  Clothing  merchandising  is  not  taught  to students. However some aspects of it are offered in some programmes such as Business education and Marketing in universities. It is taught as marketing by Business education lecturers and Marketing lecturers respectively. Clothing merchandising is not offered in Home Economics education programmes in Nigerian universities.  Clothing and textile courses in Universities  in  Nigeria  offer  only  courses  like  basic  clothing  processes,  textile  science, clothing construction, pattern drafting, laundry work, allied crafts   sewing equipment and tools, fabric production,  wardrobe planning, clothing care , repair and maintenance , among others. But, Home Economics and related programmes like Home Science, Home and rural science, fashion outside Nigeria offer Clothing Merchandising an integral part of their curriculum (University of Texas, College of Natural Sciences). Therefore, in order for Home Economics graduates to get into and succeed in clothing merchandising business and become globally competitive it is necessary to acquire necessary competencies through appropriate training while in the university.

Training in clothing merchandising involves exposing students to the knowledge, skills and attitudes in market survey, idea generation, planning, buying, selling, customer

buying behaviour and problem solving abilities in clothing, textile and related areas (Hegland, Lyons and Strickler, 2006) .Clothing merchandising education should therefore help students acquire the needed knowledge and skill in all the activities aimed at bringing clothing and textile products to the market place in addition to procurement, accounting, production and distribution.  Clothing Merchandising is an important component which should be integrated into the Home Economics programme (clothing and textile option) of universities for the purpose of equipping students for employment opportunities. Home Economics deal with issues affecting individuals and families in their everyday life and these issues are constantly changing.  It is, therefore, imperative that the programme keep abreast with these changing needs of individuals and the society.  Hence, the need to develop a clothing merchandising curriculum in order to build the students entrepreneurial competencies and prepare them for useful living.

Curriculum as defined  by Tyler,  (1975)  is  all  the  learning experiences which  is planned and directed by the school to attain its educational goals. Curriculum is therefore the sum total of all the learning which is provided by the school to bring about desired change in behavior of the learners. Development is described as the ability to advance or grow bigger or to   be  more  advanced  in  knowledge  and  skills  (Teare  and  Boer,  1997).Curriculum development is then the process of preparing curriculum materials and it involve different stages and steps. These steps according to Taba (1962), Tyler (1975) and Wheeler (1980) include; diagnosis of need, formulation of objectives, selection and organization of content, selection and  organization of learning experiences, and  evaluation activities.  Curriculum objectives define and give purpose to individual learning activities. They are statements of behavioural expectations of the learners at the end of each learning sequence (Offorma, 2002).

Objectives are the result intended from the educational program (Hermsen, 2000). Olaitan (2003) noted that objective is a statement of the expected or desired learning outcome from a particular learning activity, stated in terms of the anticipated students’ achievement. Hence, objectives form the bases for the evaluation and the entire curriculum development process.

Another step in curriculum development involve determination of learning experience/content which can be described as an activity in which the learner can be totally involved in, inorder to practice the required behaviour (Taba, 1962). Learning experiences are used to  achieve the  set  objectives. It  entails an interaction between the  learner and  his environment. Learning experience is the learner’s behaviour as it relates to learning and it is a function of the learner’s perception, interest and previous experience (Olaitan, 2003).

Content refers to knowledge, skills, processes and values designed for students to acquire in school. It is the subject matter to be taught to learners (Offorma, 1994).  Evaluation involves the process of assessing the achievement of the objectives of the programme. It involves identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the program. All these stages are inter- related and inter-dependent on each other, one step leads to the next and feedback from one step is used to develop and improve the other steps.

Development  of clothing  merchandising education curriculum, therefore,  entailed; determination of objectives of clothing merchandising, relevant content (knowledge, attitude and skills) of clothing merchandising, delivery systems and the evaluation activities that can be used to determine the achievement of the clothing merchandising objectives.   Clothing merchandising education will equip Home Economics students more and better with entrepreneurial skills to enter into and succeed in clothing merchandising and related occupations upon leaving the university. This will be achieved by developing a Clothing

merchandising curriculum, integrating it  into the Home Economics programme and then training Home Economics students in Clothing merchandising.

Curriculum integration therefore, is a means of combining different but related areas into  the  curriculum  in  order  to  make  the  curriculum  more  effective  (Brooks,  2008). Integrating clothing merchandising into the curriculum of Home Economics would involve fusing the various relevant aspects of clothing merchandising into clothing and textile courses of  Home  Economics  programme.  Such  integration  will  make  the  Home  Economics programme more responsive to address the problems of unemployment and poverty.  A Home Economics programme that has clothing merchandising aspect will relate the knowledge, skill and attitude in clothing merchandising to practical life situations by helping in the production of skilled individuals who will be entrepreneurs. This will consequently help in job creation and poverty reduction with improved standard of living as the resultant effect.

Statement of the Problem

Clothing merchandising is a very important aspect of clothing and textile within the Home Economics education programme. It should therefore be taught with the other components of clothing and textile. Presently,   it is not in the Home Economics education programme (clothing and textile option) at University level in Nigeria (National Universities Commission (NUC), 1989). Consequently,  it  is  not offered and  students are  denied the opportunity of acquiring clothing merchandising knowledge, attitude and skills which they need for entrepreneurship activities on graduation.

Skill  acquisition  in  clothing  merchandising  in  Nigeria  as  with  some  trades  has remained mainly through the informal apprenticeship system whereby a trainee learns the skills in the trade through observation and imitation of the trainer (Ochiagha, 1995). The

trainees or the apprentices learn the skills, tasks and secrets of the trade directly from the masters  of  the  occupation,  namely  clothing  merchants  or  merchandisers.  The  Home Economics graduates who have interest in clothing merchandising may not have the confidence, skill, knowledge and attitude to embark on the relevant entrepreneurial opportunities. On the other hand, when they venture into clothing merchandising without adequate training and preparation while in school they operate on trial and error basis. In such cases chances of success is very slim due to lack of relevant training. This situation limits the students’ chances of self-employment and  consequently poverty reduction and  improved standard of living (National Planning Commission (NPC), 2007). Yet, clothing merchandising offers   Home   Economics   graduates   viable   self-employment   opportunities   in   many occupational areas (U.S. Bureau of Statistics, 2010). Effectiveness in clothing merchandising can only be possible if the graduates are adequately equipped with relevant skills, knowledge and attitude in clothing merchandising prior to graduation. This cannot be possible without putting a clothing merchandising programme in place. This is a challenge that needs to be addressed. One way of doing this is the development of clothing merchandising education curriculum that could be integrated into Home Economics programme in Universities in Nigeria.

Purpose of the Study

The major purpose of this study was to develop a clothing merchandising curriculum to be integrated into the Home Economics programme in Universities in South-east Nigeria. Specifically the study:

(1)  determined  the  objectives  of  clothing  merchandising  education  within  Home

Economics programme of Universities in south-east Nigeria;

(2)  determined the content needed for achieving the objectives of clothing merchandising education within the Home Economics of Universities in South-east Nigeria based on the findings from the first specific;

(3)  determined the delivery systems (instructional facilities, methods and techniques) that could be employed for teaching clothing merchandising education within the Home Economics programme of University in south-east Nigeria;

(4)  determined the activities that could be used for evaluating students’ achievement of the clothing merchandising objectives within the Home Economics education programme in Universities in south-east Nigeria;

(5)  developed a draft clothing merchandising curriculum based on the findings from purpose numbers 1-4 that could be integrated into the Home Economics programme of Universities in south-east Nigeria ;

(6)  validated the draft clothing merchandising curriculum;

(7)  Revised the draft clothing merchandising curriculum that could be integrated into the

Home Economics education programme of Universities in south-east Nigeria;

Significance of the Study

Clothing  merchandising  entails  the  business  of  clothing.     It  involves  buying, packaging, display, promotion, distribution, and selling of clothing and textile goods and services. Clothing merchandising is an important aspect of clothing and Textile within the Home Economics education programme that prepares individuals as successful entrepreneurs. The findings of the study, therefore, will be useful to curriculum planners, Home Economics lecturers and  students (clothing and  textile  option),  clothing  merchants, wholesalers and retailers, school leavers, unemployed, government at all levels and the entire Nigerian nation.

The study through its findings will therefore introduce some innovations into the curriculum of Home Economics programme, Clothing and Textile option.  It will do this by revealing useful information to curriculum planners (NUC, NERDC, NBTE) on the clothing merchandising objectives, content, delivery system and evaluation activities developed for integration into the Home Economics programme.  It will therefore fill the gap existing in the Home Economics programme. Clothing merchandising curriculum in Home Economics programme will help students gain an awareness of the clothing merchandising career.

The findings of the study will be useful to Home Economics (Clothing and Textile) lecturers and students by providing them with the requisite skills and knowledge in clothing merchandising. It will help to develop their interest in the clothing and related businesses thereby encouraging entrepreneurship.   They will be better equipped with the knowledge, techniques, attitude and manipulative skills needed in Clothing merchandising.  This will lead to the production of prospective successful entrepreneurs who are capable of starting up businesses in the clothing, textile and related industry upon graduation from the university. The knowledge and skills gained from the findings of this study will equip them and motivate them to enter into entrepreneurship.

Retailers and wholesalers in Clothing and related businesses will benefit from the findings of the study.  It will provide important information to retailers and wholesalers on how to improve on their merchandising activities especially in the area of buying, selling, display, pricing, packaging, sales promotion, customer relations, among others in clothing and related businesses.

The study through its  findings will provide useful information to  school leavers, unemployed and potential entrepreneurs through workshops, seminars and conferences on the

occupations in Clothing merchandising.  It will then encourage them to pursue careers in it and the need to acquire skills in it. It will help in the production of job creators instead of job seekers thereby reducing unemployment, poverty and its ugly consequences.

The information provided by this study will also be beneficial to government at all levels; the federal, state and local governments. It will sensitize them more on the occupations in the Clothing and Textile industry thereby making them aware of the need for more support and funding for clothing and textile, Home Economics programmes and Vocational education in the Nigerian educational system. Properly developed clothing merchandising programme will therefore, go  a long way in  helping to  promote trade in Nigeria both at  local and international markets. The findings of this study will generate information that can be used to improve the quality of clothing goods produced in Nigeria. This will help in the production of clothing items that can compete favourably with imported ones in the international market.  It will equip individuals adequately with skills to compete and enter into the labour force.  This will consequently boost the Nigerian economy by generating more revenue for the country, through increased number of skilled people who are into entrepreneurship.

The study through the information generated from it will enlighten the entire nation on the job opportunities existing in clothing merchandising.  It will also sensitize them on the need to patronize Nigerian made clothing and textile items and reduce overdependence on imported clothing, textile and related services.  This consequently will generate more revenue and boost the economy thereby helping to fight poverty by improving the standard of living of Nigerians through the provision of employment to the unemployed.

This study is also useful to curriculum studies as it developed a curriculum for  the

Home Economics programme. It developed clothing merchandising education curriculum that

could be integrated into Home Economics programmes of University in South-East Nigeria. It achieved this by determining the clothing merchandising competencies (skills, knowledge and attitude) required and important for Home Economics students for them to enter into clothing merchandising  occupations.     It  identified  the  components  of  clothing  merchandising curriculum to be developed and these include: the specific objectives of clothing merchandising, the clothing merchandising content to be covered in the curriculum of Home Economics  programmes.  It  also  identified  the  delivery  system  (instructional  facilities, methods and techniques), learning experiences and evaluation activities that could be adopted to achieve the objectives of clothing merchandising within the Home Economics programmes of universities.  With the identification of the components of the curriculum to be developed, the study then developed, validated and revised a draft clothing merchandising program that could be integrated into the curriculum of Home Economics.

This study, therefore has some theoretical significance to the theory of curriculum development because it was anchored on Wheeler’s (1980) curriculum theory. The clothing merchandising curriculum developed followed the model advocated by wheeler in his cyclic curriculum development model. This study therefore added some knowledge to the existing theory on curriculum development.

Research Questions

The following research questions guided the study:

(1)   What should constitute the specific objectives of clothing merchandising education within the Home Economics programme of Universities in south-east Nigeria?

(2)   What should constitute the content needed for achieving the objectives of clothing merchandising education within the Home Economics programme of Universities in south-east Nigeria?

(3)   What delivery system (instructional facilities,  methods and techniques) could be employed for teaching clothing merchandising within the Home Economics programme of Universities in south-east Nigeria?

(4)   What are the evaluation activities that could be adopted for assessing the students’ achievement of the objectives of clothing merchandising within Home Economics programme in south-east Nigeria?

Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses were tested in this study at 0.05 level of significance: H1:       There is no significant difference in the mean scores of Home Economics lecturers,

Marketing  lecturers  and  Business  Education  lecturers  on  the  specific  clothing

merchandise objectives to be incorporated into the Home Economics programme of

Universities in south-east Nigeria.

H2:      There is no significant difference in the mean scores of Home Economics lecturers, Marketing lecturers and Business education lecturers on the content of clothing merchandising  to   be   incorporated  into   the   Home   Economics  programme  of Universities in south-east Nigeria.

H3:      There is no significant difference in the mean scores of Home Economics lecturers, Marketing lecturers and Business education lecturers on the delivery system that could be employed for teaching clothing merchandising in Home Economics programme in Universities in south-east Nigeria.

H4:      There is no significant difference in the mean scores of Home Economics lecturers, Marketing lecturers and Business education lecturers on the evaluation activities that could be adopted for assessing the achievement of the objectives of clothing merchandising in Home Economics programme in Universities in south-east Nigeria.

Scope of the Study

The study developed, validated and revised a draft clothing merchandising curriculum. The study was limited to determination of the clothing merchandising objectives, content, delivery system (facilities, methods and techniques) and evaluation activities that were developed for integration into Home Economics programme of universities in south-east geopolitical zone of Nigeria. The areas of clothing merchandising that were covered are ; buying, pricing, packaging, displaying, selling/distribution, accounting, record keeping, sales promotion,   marketing   strategy,   preservation,   storage,   customer   related   issues   and interpersonal relationship.   The study also focused on fabrics and ready-to-wear garments merchandised in the two  major commercial cities  in the south-east zone that  engage in clothing merchandising; Onitsha and Aba. The study also covered four universities in the five states in the south-east geopolitical zone of Nigeria that offer Home Economics.

The study used the modified five phase Research and Development design (Rand D ) advocated by Gall,Gall and Borg (2007).

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