On the Absence of Poverty in Financial Literacy Curriculum Frameworks: A Critical Discourse Analysis

• In Event: Roundtable Session 27
  In Roundtable Session: Curriculum Practice and Student Experiences

Abstract

Since the global financial crisis of 2008, financial literacy education has received widespread attention. Many state and provincial departments of education in both the United States and Canada have either developed discrete financial literacy curriculum documents or embedded financial literacy content within existing social studies frameworks. This paper joins scholarship problematizing financial literacy initiatives on the basis that financial literacy education in its current form conceals the political, systemic, and structural reasons for the existence of poverty and instead proposes that individuals can overcome being poor through financial literacy alone. Employing critical discourse analysis, this study aims to uncover the absences, silences, and omissions regarding issues of poverty and economic injustice in U.S. and Canadian high school financial literacy standards.

Author

• Agata Soroko, University of Ottawa