Valuing Us All

Toward Feminist Pedagogy in Economics

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pp. 3-18

Given the growing feminist literature oriented to reconstructing economics, it is time for economic educators, especially feminist economics educators, to look at what they teach in their courses and how they teach them. If the goals of economics education include increasing students' understanding of the world and enabling them to participate fully as citizens in a democratic society, then the economics ...

Feminist Pedagogy: A Means for Bringing Critical Thinking and Creativity to the Economics Classroom

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pp. 19-29

The past decade has produced a plethora of reports critical of higher education, and many of these reports suggest that classroom activities focus on more than the transmission or transfer of knowledge from teacher to student (Derek Bok 1986; Ernest L. Boyer 1987; Association of American Colleges 1985). Economic education has not escaped ...

Breaking Down the Walls, Opening Up the Field: Situating the Economics Classroom in the Site of Social Action

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pp. 30-40

The curtain rises on a scene: an introductory economics classroom, where students are sitting in neat rows. The professor begins the class by reminding students that "economics is the study of how scarce resources are allocated among unlimited wants" and proceeds to draw on the board a graph examining how the price and quantity of good X ...

Hidden by the Invisible Hand: Neoclassical Economic Theory and the Textbook Treatment of Race and Gender

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pp. 43-65

Adding Feminist Re-Visions to the Economics Curriculum: The Case of the Labor Supply Decision

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pp. 66-74

Feminism's influence on the discipline of economics is finally being recognized, and one area that has been particularly affected is how we teach economics. This essay explores how a feminist perspective can transform the economics curriculum into a more inclusive, more realistic site where students gain an active and critical...

Addressing U.S. Poverty in Introductory: Insights from Feminist Economics

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pp. 75-85

Over the past decade concerns about declining numbers of economics majors and the lack of race and gender diversity among professional economists have focused increasing attention on the state of undergraduate education in economics (Ferber 1995; Bartlett 1995). Increasingly, members of the economics profession have questioned the...

What Do Students Need to Know?: Experiences with Developing a More Feminist "Principles of Macroeconomics" Course

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pp. 86-96

I began teaching principles of macroeconomics fifteen years ago by lecturing on the standard list of macroeconomic topics that I had been exposed to during graduate studies. In addition to teaching principles, my department chair requested that I teach women in the economy. My experiences with this latter course and feminist theory informed my desire to change the principles of macroeconomics course. As I gained...

The Economics of Stereotyping

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pp. 97-102

This essay offers an example of how the economics of stereotyping can be presented in a way that can broaden course content and use some of the teaching methods advocated by feminist pedagogy. The stereotyping of occupations as male or female is a root cause of a major problem: women consistently receiving lower pay than men. While any...

The Scope of Microeconomics: Implications for Economic Education

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pp. 103-151

Does PersonaIity Type Explain the Gender Gap in Economics?: Analysis and Pedagogy

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pp. 152-167

Nearly twenty years ago Siegfried (1979) reported that men outperformed women in introductory economics classes, and the existence of a "gender gap" became part of the professional literature. In a survey of more recent works, Ferber (1990) notes the importance of distinguishing between the stock of economic knowledge that a student has when they enter their first college economics course, and the flow or rate of...

The Road Not Taken: Service Learning as an Example of Feminist Pedagogy in Economics

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pp. 168-183

In 1988 the Association of American Colleges (AAC) and the American Economic Association assembled a task force to study the "Status and Prospects of the Economics Major." This report, by Siegfried et aI., suggests that more needs to be done to teach our students to think like economists. Further, it indicates that lecturing emphasizes "passive learning, narrow forms of evaluation, few or no writing assignments, and a...

Use of Structured Peer Review in Writing Intensive Courses: Helping Students Comprehend the Evaluation Process

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pp. 184-192

This case study provides a concrete example of how economics courses might begin moving, at least on the margin, toward some of the principles advocated in the feminist pedagogy literature cf. Schniedewind 1987; Shrewsbury 1993; other essays in the section on Alternative Pedagogies), in particular toward empowerment of students through use of alternative evaluation practices. I suggest specifically...

Internships for Economics Students: Experiments in Feminist Pedagogy

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pp. 193-201

American college educators have recently shown renewed interest in expanding programs that encourage students to learn through real-world experiences. These programs cover many forms of experiential learning, from voluntary community service to foreign exchange programs. It is increasingly recognized that one way to strengthen liberal arts...

Teaching Case Studies in the Principles of Economics Classroom: One Instructor's Experience

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pp. 202-214

Most economics instructors are concerned about the quality of learning in their classrooms. Are students learning to "think like economists" through development of their analytical skills? Are they able to apply what they learn to a variety of more or less realistic problems? Are they becoming interested in the subject-interested enough...

E-Mail Discussion Lists and Feminist Pedagogy in the Economics Classroom

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pp. 215-223

Since the 1980s there has been a dialogue in economic education on alternative pedagogical practices that would enable students to learn critical and creative thinking (Bok 1986; Siegfried et al. 1991). Some of these dialogues suggest that feminist pedagogy is especially suited to the fostering of such skills because it emphasizes cooperation, community, and conversation rather than passive note taking...

Putting Economics to Work

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pp. 224-240

Students are rarely given an opportunity to put the economics they learn in college to work. Instead, they are given the opportunity to apply economic principles to contrived problem sets, case studies, or even actual cases after the fact. The content of most economics courses is prescribed. In addition, students rarely get a chance to learn economics in a way similar to how they will learn and work together in their jobs...