The Consequences and Affordances of Neoclassicism and the GPS Economics Curriculum
Location
Moody
Proposal Track
Research Project
Session Format
Presentation
Abstract
In this study, I investigated the terrain of economics education curriculum and standards in general, and the state of Georgia specifically. Economics is most often considered in terms solely of the exchange of money and the making of profits. However, little in the research literature sheds light on the ways in which peoples experience of economics connects to the economics curriculum as it is presented in national and state standards. The ways in which current social theories consider the economy through terms like neoliberalism and commodification is not considered in the standards documents. However, I theorized economics curriculum, as articulated through the Georgia Performance Standards for K-12, in terms of what kinds of human subjectivity it allows and constrains, in other words, how students who learn this economics curriculum might be shaped by it and for what ends. Thus, I looked deeply at the curriculum to consider the social impact of the economics curriculum and the mechanisms at work that fuel the economics curriculum. These are important investigations in light of social studies' call to help students make sense of their social worlds. My work interrogated economics' ability to answer this call in light of the social and economic upheavals in the last ten years.
Keywords
economics, social studies, curriculum, subjectivity
Recommended Citation
Adams, Erin, "The Consequences and Affordances of Neoclassicism and the GPS Economics Curriculum" (2016). Georgia Educational Research Association Conference. 36.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gera/2016/2016/36
The Consequences and Affordances of Neoclassicism and the GPS Economics Curriculum
Moody
In this study, I investigated the terrain of economics education curriculum and standards in general, and the state of Georgia specifically. Economics is most often considered in terms solely of the exchange of money and the making of profits. However, little in the research literature sheds light on the ways in which peoples experience of economics connects to the economics curriculum as it is presented in national and state standards. The ways in which current social theories consider the economy through terms like neoliberalism and commodification is not considered in the standards documents. However, I theorized economics curriculum, as articulated through the Georgia Performance Standards for K-12, in terms of what kinds of human subjectivity it allows and constrains, in other words, how students who learn this economics curriculum might be shaped by it and for what ends. Thus, I looked deeply at the curriculum to consider the social impact of the economics curriculum and the mechanisms at work that fuel the economics curriculum. These are important investigations in light of social studies' call to help students make sense of their social worlds. My work interrogated economics' ability to answer this call in light of the social and economic upheavals in the last ten years.
