engleski

Learning economics: content analysis of textbooks for lower grades of elementary school

According to Viviana Zelizer’s theory, child has in the last hundred years gone from economically beneficial to the economically useless and emotionally priceless child. Child is, therefore, protected from labor and profit, and learning economic concepts is mainly conceived as a second-rate issue. Generally accepted value is the financial dependence of children on adults, and this dependence continues into adolescence, but also into post- adolescence. This paper presents results of content analysis of textbooks for lower grades of elementary school (Croatian language, mathematics and nature and society). The aim of the research was to examine the relationship between the educational system and the social transfer of the economic knowledge. The presentation of basic economic concepts such as money and labor, as well as described economic activities were determined and socio-cultural context was taken into account in the interpretation. The research showed the absence of some economic concepts and social values typical of market economies, such as entrepreneurship, inovation or initiative. Child labor was depicted as domestic and unpaid.

Economic knowledge; children; textbooks; educational system; socio cultural context

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