Title: Understanding economics does not equal understanding the economy: designing teacher education from a socio-economic perspective

Authors: Georg Tafner; Marc Casper

Addresses: Institut für Erziehungswissenschaften, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Arbeitsbereich Wirtschaftspädagogik, Geschwister-Scholl-Straße 7, 10117, Berlin, Germany ' Institut für Erziehungswissenschaften, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Arbeitsbereich Wirtschaftspädagogik, Geschwister-Scholl-Straße 7, 10117, Berlin, Germany

Abstract: Reflected pluralism and controversial discourse are hallmarks of mature science. Although economics as an academic discipline should not be an exception, some debates suggest that it is dominated by a mainstream of neoclassical research and teaching, opposing learning objectives such as critical literacy, multi-disciplinarity, and pragmatic competencies applicable to the real-world economy. Respectively, understanding economics (as an established discipline) does not equal understanding the economy (as a set of real-world phenomena). Thus, especially in economy-related teacher education, many questions concerning how to approach economics as a subject matter remain unanswered. Design-based research can serve as a means of investigating such questions and prototyping new course designs. This paper introduces such an approach, aiming at effective socio-economic course designs and an empirical exploration of how student teachers in Germany and Austria experience pluralism in economics.

Keywords: pluralism; socio-economics; teacher training; design-based research; DBR; reflexive business and economic education.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPEE.2022.129245

International Journal of Pluralism and Economics Education, 2022 Vol.13 No.3, pp.277 - 296

Accepted: 09 Sep 2022
Published online: 01 Mar 2023 *

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