TITLE: Understanding of extension fields with Kronecker's thorem
QUESTION [6 upvotes]: In the book Contemporary Abstract Algebra by Gallian it defines an extension field as follows:

A field $E$ is an extension field of a field $F$ if $F\subseteq E$ and the operations of $F$ are those of $E$ restricted to $F$.

Question 1)
When it says "and the operations of $F$ are those of $E$ restricted to $F$" is this equivalent to saying "and the operations of $F$ are those of $E$ such that $F$ is a subfield"? Is this what is meant by "restricted to $F$"? 
Also, Kronecker's threorem states:

Let $F$ be a field and let $f(x)$ be a nonconstant polynomial in $F[x]$.
  Then there is an extension field $E$ of $F$ in which $f(x)$ has a zero.

Question 2) I know that in the theorem above $E=F[x]/\left<p(x)\right>$ where $p(x)$ is an irreducible factor of $f(x)$ and that the field $E=F[x]/\left<p(x)\right>$ contains an isomorphic copy of $F$. But why doesn't the definition of extension fields take into account up to an isomorphism (since technically $F$ is not a subset of $E$ in this case) when we talk about a field $E$ being an extension of a field $F$? 
Can't we define extension fields say as:
An extension field of a field $F$ is a pair $(E,\phi)$ such that $\phi$ is a homomorphism from $F$ to $E$ with $\phi(F)\subseteq E$ and the operations of $\phi(F)$ are those of $E$ restricted to $\phi(F)$?

REPLY [2 votes]: The main thing is that every homomorphism between fields is an embedding (injective). On one hand it means that your definition is correct (assuming that homomorphisms take $1\mapsto 1$, as Brett said), and yes, more precise.
On the other hand, it means that if we have a homomorphism $K\to L$, then, basically we can assume that $K\subseteq L$ is a subfield (in this step we identify $K$ with its image), and this viewpoint has some advantages, at least in simplifying the notations.