Education Beyond the Status Quo: Financial Literacy in the Nonideal Context of Economic Inequality

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 23
  In Roundtable Session: Positionality and Teaching

Abstract

Financial literacy education has gained international prominence since the 2008 financial crisis. In this paper, I argue that financial literacy education does not live up to its promise to prepare students for financial success given the realities of escalating economic inequality. I suggest three directions in which financial literacy education ought to be reframed. First, lessons on finances ought to be rooted in real-world social and economic issues. Second, the narrow, individualistic, and consumerist version of current financial literacy standards ought to be replaced by a broader, more critical economic literacy that aligns with the aims of democratic education. Third, to achieve the first two aims, financial literacy ought to be integrated into other social studies subjects.

Author

• Agata Soroko, University of Ottawa