Valuing Us All: Feminist Pedagogy and Economics

Toward Feminist Pedagogy in Economics

Toward Feminist Pedagogy in Economics April Laskey Aerni, Robin L. Bartlett, Margaret Lewis, KimMarie McGoldrick, and Jean Shackelford 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 classroom must invite all students to take part. This essay begins by describing evidence from the United States that suggests that content and teaching methods may influence the demographics of economics students. Next, it suggests a framework that will help economists evaluate to what extent their courses offer inclusive content and an inclusive learning environment. It explores connections among inclusive course content, a different learning environment, and a feminist pedagogy. Finally, it discusses the challenges of moving the economics classroom toward a feminist pedagogy and the potential transformation of the discipline itself. Observations from the U.S. Experience Recent declines in economics majors in the United States have caused concern among economics educators in the United States (Siegfried and Scott 1994; Committee on Economic Education 1996). The relationship between the declining number of economics majors in the United States and the underrepresentation of women and people of color in economics classrooms is largely one of simple mathematics. As U.S. data indicate, women and people of color comprise an increasing number of college students (U.S. Department of Education 1997). However, as documented over the last twenty years, the percentage of women receiving economics degrees has remained relatively stable, increasing just four percentage points from 197778 to 1993-94 (Siegfried and Scott 1994; Siegfried 1995). Results from a 3 Toward Feminist Pedagogy in Economics April Laskey Aerni, Robin L. Bartlett, Margaret Lewis, KimMarie McGoldrick, and Jean Shackelford 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 classroom must invite all students to take part. This essay begins by describing evidence from the United States that suggests that content and teaching methods may influence the demographics of economics students. Next, it suggests a framework that will help economists evaluate to what extent their courses offer inclusive content and an inclusive learning environment. It explores connections among inclusive course content, a different learning environment, and a feminist pedagogy. Finally, it discusses the challenges of moving the economics classroom toward a feminist pedagogy and the potential transformation of the discipline itself. Observations from the U.S. Experience Recent declines in economics majors in the United States have caused concern among economics educators in the United States (Siegfried and Scott 1994; Committee on Economic Education 1996). The relationship between the declining number of economics majors in the United States and the underrepresentation of women and people of color in economics classrooms is largely one of simple mathematics. As U.S. data indicate, women and people of color comprise an increasing number of college students (U.S. Department of Education 1997). However, as documented over the last twenty years, the percentage of women receiving economics degrees has remained relatively stable, increasing just fouf percentage points from 197778 to 1993-94 (Siegfried and Scott 1994; Siegfried 1995). Results from a 3 4 Valuing Us All recent national survey of undergraduate teaching methods sent to over 3,000 economics instructors across the United States conducted by William Becker and Michael Watts (1996) support the authors' view that, given recent demographic changes and our own experiences, teachers of economics who want to foster a more inclusive classroom must look inside their classrooms rather than at such external factors, such as academic subject cycles and the business cycle.1 According to Becker and Watts, "the dominant profile of U.S. undergraduate economics teachers is a male (83 percent), Caucasian (89 percent), Ph.D. (86 percent) ... who lectures to a class of students as he writes text, equations, and graphs on the chalk board, and who assigns students readings from a standard textbook. This picture is basically the same for all courses and at all institutions, despite the fact that teaching loads and class size vary considerably across the...