What Does It Mean to Teach “Critically”? Lessons From a Study of Financial Literacy Education Teachers

• In Event: Thursday Roundtable Session 4:20 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Exploring Neglected Narratives and Racial Literacies: Social Studies Teachers' Beliefs and Practices (Table 21)

Abstract

Despite financial literacy’s increasing presence in Canadian and U.S. school curricula, there has been little empirical investigation exploring teachers’ beliefs and practices. This paper draws from a case study of teachers in Ontario and Quebec who self-identify as taking a critical approach to teaching financial literacy. Findings bring forth distinctions in teachers’ ideas about criticality, revealing that teachers navigate between common, critical, and transformative sense orientations in sophisticated ways to achieve their pedagogical aims. The results from this research show that definitions of criticality are multiple and contested. While all the participants recruited for this study came forward because they view their teaching as critical, findings show that what they believe to be critical teaching varies significantly.

Author

• Agata Soroko, University of California - Riverside