Financial numeracy education in informal settings: insights from designing a museum exhibition installation

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 11:45 am - Gold 2
  In Roundtable Session: Financial Literacy and Numeracy Across Ecological Levels: Examining Global, National, Local, and Home Discourses of Financial Education

Abstract

This presentation explores the design of a financial numeracy exhibition that promotes critical and systemic understandings of financial concepts among middle school students. Responding to policy calls for interdisciplinary and civics-oriented numeracy, the project developed three interactive installations focused on money production, price dynamics, and income inequality, using metaphors from everyday contexts. Grounded in Engeström’s Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), the study analyzes how researchers, educators, and designers co-constructed the exhibition through multi-voiced, historically situated, and contradiction-driven collaboration. The findings highlight how expansive learning emerged during the design process, revealing insights not only for improving the exhibition prototypes but also for informing future professional development in financial numeracy education.

Authors

• Andrew Jingyuan Li, University of Toronto - OISE

• Mark Argo, Toronto Metropolitan University

• Alexandre Cavalcante, University of Toronto