Economic socialization and education in two countries: A content analysis of sixth grade social studies curriculum

• In Event: Perceptions of sustainability from the Global-South: curriculum and textbooks in Malaysia, Mexico, India, and Pakistan.

Proposal

Education has long been linked to economic growth and subsequently to economic inequality. Yet education on economics itself has only recently become a focus of concern, with much of the discussion taking a neo-liberal, deficit approach and centering on the lack of financial education for young people (Brimble & Blue, 2015). While research has demonstrated that adult financial attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors are a result of developmental process that occurs throughout childhood and adolescence (Danes, 1994), the link between this socialization process and formal education on finance is not well-researched (Financial Literacy and Education Commission, 2008). This study is designed to partially address this gap in the literature. We will explore how social studies textbooks describe economic concerns and how the texts position these concerns in ways relevant to young adolescents in both the USA and in India.
Literature Review
Udom (1982) defined economic socialization as “the process of imparting knowledge or educating citizens, young and old, formally or informally, about aspects of the national economic system” (p. 6). Yet most school curriculum focuses on individual financial behaviors (Brimble & Blue, 2015). In contrast, Davies (2015) called for an expanded approach to financial literacy and proposed a curriculum framework with two dimensions. The first dimension differentiated between short and long term financial and economic outcomes and the second dimension differentiated between actions taken by the individual, financial services industries, or the state.
In California, the focal state for the US portion of this study, the History-Social Science curriculum, which includes economics, is decided upon by the State Board of Education (SBE). Instructional materials are reviewed for both alignment to content, as well as social compliance which includes the portrayal of “democratic values, cultural pluralism and the diversity of the state’s population” (California Department of Education, 2014, p. 8).
In India, standards and textbooks are under the administration of the National Council of Educational Research and Training, with changes in governments leading to changes in curriculum (Bhattacharya, 2009). Despite India’s current progressive curricula, Hegde (2018) points out that the new BJP-led coalition government is expected to revamp the national curriculum. This can, once again, significantly change the course of textbook content and pedagogy in India.
Method
The study uses qualitative content analysis in which an existing framework for coding a text is employed with a qualitative examination of the latent content of the text (Cho & Lee, 2014). For this study, the research team, consisting of a professor and a graduate student, examined 6th grade history textbooks from India and California, as the topic of ancient world history is common between the two. The California textbook (History Alive (HA), 2004) was on the Los Angeles Unified School District’s list of approved textbooks and the researchers read and coded passages related to the six state standards relevant to economics. India’s 6th grade history textbook (Our Pasts (OP), 2017) was approximately half the length of the California textbook, so the team read and coded the entire book. Additionally, the team coded the 6th grade chapter from the teacher’s curriculum framework published by the California Department of Education (History Social Science Framework (HSSF), 2017).
Coding followed the scheme from Davies (2015) that suggested economic knowledge could be seen as (1) relevant to either long-term or short-term outcomes and (2) relevant to individuals, industry and banks, or government or state interests. The research team also recorded memos, noting relations between the texts or to the literature base.
Results
The coding scheme shows significant imbalance in the types of economic knowledge that are discussed in the 6th grade social studies textbooks. Long-term behaviors or outcomes were mentioned fourteen times for every time a short-term behavior or outcome was mentioned. The dimensions of individual/business/state were mentioned in slightly more equal proportions, with individuals making up 44 percent of relevant references, the state making up 35.5 percent, and banks and business making up the final 20.5 percent. Individuals, rather than states or banks and businesses were most often mentioned with long-term outcomes, but further analysis found that these references were dominated by descriptions of occupations, such as traders, and long-term concerns for these occupations.
Overall, the research team noted three general trends in the curriculum from the qualitative content analysis. First, discussion of economics at the 6th grade level for both countries consisted mostly about discussions of trade. These discussions of trade were usually connected with positive outcomes, particularly with increasing connection between communities, working to establish early trade as the precursor to globalization. For example, in the California text, trade “brought people into contact with people from distant places. These contacts helped spread new ideas and knowledge around the ancient world” (HA, p.31). A point of contrast between the Californian and Indian textbooks was in the portrayal of trade as individual or communal. For example, while both texts describe the Silk Road, the US text discussed the experience of the traders and their goods, while the Indian text discussed the role of states in controlling the route for their own economic gain. Additionally, economic inequality was addressed in both curriculums, but included little mention about how social inequality benefitted the elite or the state. Finally, there was little mention of banks or other financial institutions in either curriculum. One instance in the Indian textbook connected banking with trade associations known as shrenis and thus a more communal model of the economy. Further examples will be shared in the presentation.
Conclusion
The theory of economic socialization holds that significant others, such as parents and teachers, as well as significant contexts, such as homes and schools, provide socially acceptable scripts of economic behaviors and attitudes. This project sought to explore specifically how the school curriculum may play a role in the economic socialization of children, as the school curriculum is a site of enacting and socializing cultural values (Madan, 2003). The results obtained from the content analysis will be further discussed in the presentation along with policy and theoretical implications.

Authors

• Karen Moran Jackson, Soka University of America

• Aditi Lal, Soka University of America