What Are We Really Teaching? A Critical Analysis of U.S. State Elementary Economic Standards

• In Event: Roundtable Session 21
  In Roundtable Session: Examining Economics Education

Abstract

We present a critical analysis of the K-5 economic standards across the fifty U.S. states. We describe ideological values and beliefs embedded in the standards that promote economic behaviors antithetical to social responsibility. We found overall that the K-5 state standards reflect the values, ideologies and beliefs of a neoclassical model of economic behavior. We found the standards to be silent on issues of poverty, inequality, and sustainability. Through this silence, juxtaposed by precise statements about economic behaviors, students are given the implicit message that the neoclassical model of economics is the model. In this study we are concerned with the ways in which the state economic content standards function as a curriculum of social responsibility.

Authors

• Lynn M. Brice, University of Minnesota - Duluth

• Jill Torres