A Tangled Web We See: Care Networks and Complexity in Economics Curriculum

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 5:10 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Intersecting Histories, Ideologies, and Identities: Unpacking Curriculum Representations in Social Studies Education (Table 9)

Abstract

Care is an underutilized concept in K-12 economics education despite the significant role it plays in the lives of students and teachers. In this paper, we critique dominant narratives that have historically excluded the concept of care from K-12 economics curriculum and offer a conceptualization of care networks based on anthropological and sociological literature. In an inquiry arc designed to be taught in a high school economics class, we lay out a unit that enables students to not only author their care networks, but to evaluate the interconnected nature of their economic lives. This inquiry can set the stage for critical action toward a more communal and supportive economic system.

Authors

• Alexandra Thrall, Baylor University

• Neil Shanks, Texas A&M University

• Liz Harrelson Magill, Baylor University