Financial Literacy Education

Commercialism and TDSB schools

Financial Literacy in Ontario Schools: What is it?

Influences Scope and Sequence document (2011) Private profit and non-profit financial literacy organizations (IEF, Banks, Junior Achievement, etc.) Transnational Organizations (OECD) Current Political Climate (austerity, neoliberalism) Answer: Individual money management

Civic Financial Literacy

Citizens and consumers Scope and Sequence expectations are broad (macro economic phenomena are included) Promotes a limited citizenship FLE is ineffective for and depoliticizes sociallycreated economic risk

Civic Financial Literacy cont.

Financial literacy is political Financial problems Individual or collective?

Financial Solutions Individual or collective financial solutions?

Result of individualization: Consumer citizen is responsible for socially created economic risk

Conclusion
Financial literacy education too often advertises financial problems as individual problems and promotes individual solutions What is sold is not a particular financial product but a system of individualized risk management Financial Literacy Education is the friendlier side of Austerity

FLE must promote a more robust citizenship The ability to evaluate and judge between: Competing visions of the world Characterizations of financial problems Individual and collective solutions