Valuing Us All

A basic knowledge of economics is critical for making informed decisions in today's world. By offering courses and materials that are more relevant to our students' lives and encouraging more active participation in the discovery of economic concepts and theories, we promote the development of informed citizens.

This volume collects pioneering work on the integration of feminist pedagogy in economics. Part 1 introduces a vision of feminist pedagogy, explains the importance of developing feminist pedagogy in economics, and proposes a model for achieving feminist pedagogy in economics that suggests changes in both course content and teaching methods. Part 2 reveals how current course content is narrowly defined and demonstrates how content can be altered to be more inclusive. Included are an analysis of current textbook treatments and examples of broadening discussions of labor supply models, U.S. poverty, and stereotyping, as well as general overviews of macro- and microeconomic courses. Part 3 reports on current disparities in economics education by gender and provides alternative teaching strategies for correcting this problem, including the service learning, peer review, e-mail discussion lists, case studies, internships, and collaborative learning.

The contributors incorporate their vision of a new pedagogy with important economic concepts emphasizing equity as well as efficiency, cooperation as well as competition, and inter-dependence as well as independence. The volume will be a valuable resource for college faculty teaching economics in the United States, as well as to those teaching in related disciplines who want to design exercises that promote a more inclusive classroom environment through changes in both content and teaching methods.

April Laskey Aerni is Associate Professor of Economics, Nazareth College of Rochester.

KimMarie McGoldrick is Associate Professor of Economics, University of Richmond.

Praise / Awards

• "Aerni and McGoldrick provide a useful introduction to an economics pedagogy in which topics like discrimination are not wished away, and pervasive rationality and a minimal role for government get the skepticism they deserve."
  --Barbara R. Bergmann, Emerita, University of Maryland and American University
  
• "More than a 'must read,' this book is a 'must do,' for anyone concerned about creating an informed, empowered, and critical citizenry for the democratic discussion of economic issues."
  --Julie Nelson, University of Massachusetts, Boston
  
• "For a decade, two dozen feminist economists (and not all of them women) have been pushing the boundaries of the content, the pedagogy, and the single-minded devotion to the neoclassical model that dominates their field, particularly as it impacts on women students. In this compilation of criticism and constructive examples of 'feminist pedagogy' as applied to economics, they brilliantly cut to the core of economics itself and explain why the subject no longer appeals or is relevant to the majority of American youth. A must-read for anyone who teaches or, for that matter, anyone who cares about the theory and practice of economics in America."
  --Sheila Tobias, author of Faces of Feminism: An Activist's Reflections on the Women's Movement
  
• ". . . a useful compendium of techniques and suggestions for alternative content which can provide the reader with resources and models for beginning to transform the principles of economics curricula and classroom experience."
  --Ann Davis, Marist College, Review of Radical Political Economics, Volume 33 (2001)