PME-NA

Beyond the Numbers: Teaching Financial Inequality Through Real-World Math Lessons

• In Event: Poster Session #1
  In Poster Session: Beyond the Numbers: Teaching Financial Inequality Through Real-World Math Lessons

Description

Mathematics education that fosters students’ quantitative reasoning and critical thinking is essential to developing their financial literacy. The current approach to mathematics education in the US often fails to connect mathematics concepts with the real world, leaving students unprepared to make informed financial decisions and recognize financial inequality. This study analyzes the impact of a social justice mathematics (SJM) lesson on payday loans on undergraduate students’ quantitative reasoning skills and awareness of financial inequality. Findings reveal that the lesson increased students’ understanding of predatory lending, with limited effects on their ability to recognize structural barriers to financial inclusion. The study underscores the need for lessons that engage students in explicit discussions of entrenched and structural inequality to increase financial literacy and critical thinking skills.

Authors

• Debasmita Basu, Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, The New School

• Madhavi Vishnubhotla, The New School

• Rita Sandoval, The New School