Publish at April 30 2018 Updated April 03 2025
Not all types of education have the same impact on society. Mathematics or language courses provoke little or no debate. Others, however, can quickly become controversial. Whether it's sex education, history or economics, every time it comes to integrating them into the official teaching program or reforming them, it turns into a fistfight, because these subjects touch on sensitive values and echo discussions that take place outside the classroom.
In this way, economic pedagogy is often called into question by the various players in society. And, as in all real debates on economics, two camps clash.
The biggest criticism of economics teaching in France concerns the ideology conveyed. For the Medef and other business associations, economic education is far too pessimistic, offering only alarmist observations on globalization and the market economy. For them, this largely explains a lack of interest and, above all, a lack of financial literacy.
On the other hand, many are critical of the desire to make economics teaching more positive, just to please the bosses. As this teacher reminded us in 2008, this approach runs counter to the teaching method, which requires economics to be neither hopeful nor depressing. It's there to express facts and principles.
The opposing camp will then retort that it's a shame that students come away knowing more about economists like Marx than Milton Friedman or the great thinkers of economic liberalism. Conversely, there are even some high school students who find, on the contrary, that very little room is left for economic pluralism. In fact, it seems that the emphasis is much more on orthodox economics than on heterodox economics, which proposes other approaches and analyses.
So this debate is going round in circles, whether economics professors are too left-wing or not, because in both camps, there are just as many arguments. But what if the problem lies elsewhere than in philosophy?
In a context where the Conseil supérieur des programmes received a document in October 2017 pleading for more economics education in high school, the question becomes even trickier. Clearly, we need to think about an effective educational approach, but here again, there's no agreement. Already, for some, a major reform is not urgent. And what form should it take?
For some experts, it's time to move away from generalities and opinions and treat it as a hard science, like physics. This would mean teaching them more about precepts such as how the market works, game theory, the notion of risk, and so on. For some, however, this dismemberment of economics by removing the social aspect would be disastrous. It would mean playing the neoliberal card alone, without proposing to look at the impact of economic decisions on the population, on private and public services, and so on. Moreover, the Association des professeurs.e.s de sciences économiques et sociales has already stated that if the French government were to go down this road, it would be practically a declaration of war against them.
So the battle is far from over. Nevertheless, perhaps there are methods that could combine the two aspects (scientific and social) in such a way as to make economic education more concrete and profound. This economics teacher suggests two approaches that, while more relevant to academia, could be of interest to high school teaching.
One is reverse pedagogy. Here, the teacher proposes a question to be answered by learners, drawing on economic concepts, while the other approach, such as that of the CORE textbook, is also interesting, since it invites learners to use topics such as inequality, the environment or financial crises to tackle the economic angle. From a theme they've surely heard of, students can understand the forces and rules at play that explain the decisions of companies, governments, individuals and so on.
These two approaches could cover as many visions and topics on the economy to give a clear picture and inculcate precise elements that learners could use for the future. Less politically oriented, would they be solutions that would win greater consensus? That remains to be seen. Nevertheless, it remains a possibility for solving the financial education puzzle.
Illustration: Rick Payette the puzzle is not the pieces via photopin (license)
References
Collas, Aurélie. "Lycée : Un Rapport Plaide Pour Des Sciences éco Obligatoires Pour Tous En Seconde." Le Monde.fr. Last updated: October 18, 2017. http://www.lemonde.fr/lycee/article/2017/10/18/lycee-un-rapport-plaide-pour-des-sciences-eco-obligatoires-pour-tous-en-seconde_5202525_5019416.html.
Colombi, Denis. "Three Errors About Teaching Economics." Une Heure De Peine... Last updated: March 9, 2008. http://uneheuredepeine.blogspot.ca/2008/03/trois-erreurs-sur-lenseignement-de.html.
Corbier, Marie-Christine. "Divergent Opinions On A Possible Revision Of Teaching." Lesechos.fr. Last updated: January 27, 2017. https://www.lesechos.fr/27/01/2017/LesEchos/22371-015-ECH_des-avis-divergents-sur-une-eventuelle-revision-de-l-enseignement.htm.
Corbier, Marie-Christine. "Enseignement De L'économie Au Lycée: Un Diagnostic Et De Premières Batailles." Lesechos.fr. Last updated: January 30, 2017. https://www.lesechos.fr/30/01/2017/lesechos.fr/0211750030707_enseignement-de-l-economie-au-lycee---un-diagnostic-et-de-premieres-batailles.htm#.
CORE. Accessed April 27, 2018. http://www.core-econ.org/?lang=fr.
Dancer, Marie. "Faut-il Changer L'enseignement De L'économie Au Lycée?" La Croix. Last updated May 29, 2017. https://www.la-croix.com/Economie/Economie-et-entreprises/Faut-changer-lenseignement-leconomie-lycee-2017-05-29-1200850901.
Delaigue, Alexandre. "Comment Améliorer L'enseignement De L'économie?" Journées De L'économie. Last updated November 14, 2017. http://www.journeeseconomie.org/blogjeco/index.php?post/2017/11/14/Comment-am%C3%A9liorer-l%E2%80%99enseignement-de-l%E2%80%99%C3%A9conomie.
Edip, Alexandra. "Les Profs D'économie Du Lycée Sont-ils Trop à Gauche?" Capital.fr. Last updated: April 16, 2018. https://www.capital.fr/polemik/les-profs-de-ses-sont-ils-trop-a-gauche-1282953.
Gadrey, Jean. "SOS SES (sciences économiques Et Sociales Au Lycée), Season 2." Les Blogs D'Alternatives Économiques. Last updated: February 13, 2018. https://blogs.alternatives-economiques.fr/gadrey/2018/02/13/sos-ses-sciences-economiques-et-sociales-au-lycee-saison-2.
Perez, Jules. "L'enseignement Des Sciences économiques Contre Le Pluralisme? Le Regard D'un Lycéen." Mondes Sociaux. Last updated: March 18, 2018. https://sms.hypotheses.org/11188.
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