"I Felt Like Something Was Missing, but I Wasn't Sure What": Preservice Teachers and the Purpose of Economics

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 18
  In Roundtable Session: Expanding Social Studies Education

Abstract

This study analyzes the way that preservice social studies teachers implemented their understanding of the function of economics. After describing their idealized version of economics as a component of social studies, they implemented economic content in their classrooms. In these instructional decisions, the teachers engaged in economics pedagogy that critically analyzed society, and connected injustices from the past to the present, yet their economics pedagogy rarely informed future action for justice. The findings of this study offer new ways to think about connecting the purpose of economics with critical and humanizing perspectives on social studies.

Author

• Neil Shanks, Baylor University