What Kind of Economic Citizen?: An Analysis of Civic Outcomes in U.S. Economics Curriculum and Instruction Materials

Abstract

United States scholars in economics education generally view economic literacy as the field’s connection to citizenship education. However, despite this clarity of purpose, the range of ways that economic literacy could be applied to civic life is ill defined. Based on an examination of stated civic outcomes in U.S. economics curriculum and instructional materials and drawing from Westheimer and Kahne’s (2004) widely-cited democratic citizenship framework, the authors detail four archetypes of economic citizenship: (1) The personally responsible economic citizen; (2) the participatory economic citizen; (3) the justice-oriented economic citizen; and (4) the discerning economic citizen. With these citizenship archetypes in mind, economics educators can construct opportunities for their students to consider how to use their economic knowledge to make sound personal decisions, to participate in collective action, to struggle against economic inequality, or to develop an opinion after considering multiple points of view.

Keywords

• economics education
• citizenship education
• economic citizenship