Inviting students to independent judgement: Teaching financial literacy as citizenship education

Mattias Björklund,Johan Sandahl

doi:10.1177/20471734211029494

Mattias Björklund, Johan Sandahl

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1177/20471734211029494

Copy DOI

Abstract

Many financial literacy educational efforts mainly focus on teaching money management. However, money management alone does not address financial prerequisites concerning home ownership, savings or retirement planning since these issues are governed by agents outside households, namely the financial system and policy makers. This study examines students’ response to a financial literacy teaching that treats financial issues as controversial and contextually bounded to the financial and societal systems. Data consists of 36 students’ conversations during a financial literacy teaching intervention. Results show that students are capable of grasping and relating to financial concepts where association to the financial system and policy-making produce elaborate understanding. Furthermore, students that contest given financial concepts and system do not only present constructive alternate solutions for the future, but these students also seem to grasp current financial and societal systems in more advanced ways and thereby demonstrate a possible convergence between financial literacy and citizenship education.

Highlights

Since contemporary societies leave the individual responsible for choosing and defraying housing, healthcare and pensions, the ability to interact with the financial system is considered an important competence for all (Retzmann and Seeber, 2016)
Educational frameworks and curricula seem to promote financial literacy teaching and learning that mainly focus on money management, such as income and expenditure (Bosshardt and Caltabiano, 2013; Menzies and Wood, 2012; OECD, 2018; OECD/INFE, 2015; Tisdell et al, 2013), along with a message of prudence concerning loans and mortgages (Lucey and Bates, 2012)
2015; OECD, 2018) are indisputable prerequisites for managing a household, money management do not sufficiently inform individuals when dealing with welfare functions that are governed by authorities far outside the confining walls of households, namely by financial markets and policy makers

Summary

Introduction

Since contemporary societies leave the individual responsible for choosing and defraying housing, healthcare and pensions, the ability to interact with the financial system is considered an important competence for all (Retzmann and Seeber, 2016) To meet this demand in education, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), along with many national. Even though the social studies syllabus invites teachers to utilise features from both economics and citizenship education when teaching financial literacy (Swedish National Agency for Education [SNAE], 2018), Björklund (2019, 2020) show that teachers still perceive the financial literacy segment as unresolved This resonates in content choices, teaching designs and stipulated aims. Many social studies teachers do not consider financial literacy to fit with the other content features included in social studies

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion