Integrating a Social Justice Perspective in Economics Education: Creating a Distinctly Catholic Education

Journal of Catholic Education, Dec 2010

This paper suggests a way of creating a distinctly Catholic economics education by integrating a social justice perspective into the curriculum through writings from Catholic Social Thought (CST). In so doing, we argue that students of economics will gain a more thorough understanding of the economics discipline. Moreover, a grounding in CST will help business and economics students better negotiate the conflicting view of markets they encounter in the “disconnect” between business courses and humanities/social science core courses. The thesis of the paper is that CST can be a useful mechanism by which to instill a social justice perspective in economics education and to motivate educators to be clear and complete in discussing assumptions that underlie economic theory. We explore reasons economics educators have been reluctant to use tools such as CST to inform their discussion of economic theory. We use the subdiscipline of welfare theory and in particular assumptions regarding the common good, preference satisfaction, and individual and social utility to distinguish between perspectives from CST and what is taught as modern economic theory. Finally we offer some simple curricular changes that can be accomplished with little cost, which can lead to three bold accomplishments: creating a distinctly Catholic economics education, improving students’ understanding of their discipline, and diminishing the frustration and confusion students feel when they encounter disconnected messages about the effects of markets and the promotion of social justice.

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Integrating a Social Justice Perspective in Economics Education: Creating a Distinctly Catholic Education

Catholic Education: A Journal of Inquiry and Practice Integrating a Social Justice Perspective in Economics Education: Creating a Distinctly Catholic Education David F. Carrithers 0 Recommended Citation 0 This Article is brought to you for free with open access by the School of Education at Digital Commons at Loyola Marymount University and Loyola Law School. It has been accepted for publication in Catholic Education: A Journal of Inquiry and Practice by the journal's editorial board and has been published on the web by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons at Loyola Marymount University and Loyola Law School. For more information about Digital Commons , please contact - ARTICLES Integrating a Social Justice Perspective in Economics Education: Creating a Distinctly Catholic Education David F. Carrithers Dean Peterson Seattle University, Washington This paper suggests a way of creating a distinctly Catholic economics education by integrating a social justice perspective into the curriculum through writings from Catholic Social Thought (CST). In so doing, we argue that students of economics will gain a more thorough understanding of the economics discipline. Moreover, a grounding in CST will help business and economics students better negotiate the conflicting view of markets they encounter in the “disconnect” between business courses and humanities/social science core courses. The thesis of the paper is that CST can be a useful mechanism by which to instill a social justice perspective in economics education and to motivate educators to be clear and complete in discussing assumptions that underlie economic theory. We explore reasons economics educators have been reluctant to use tools such as CST to inform their discussion of economic theory. We use the subdiscipline of welfare theory and in particular assumptions regarding the common good, preference satisfaction, and individual and social utility to distinguish between perspectives from CST and what is taught as modern economic theory. Finally, we offer some simple curricular changes that can be accomplished with little cost, which can lead to three bold accomplishments: creating a distinctly Catholic economics education, improving students’ understanding of their discipline, and diminishing the frustration and confusion students feel when they encounter disconnected messages about the effects of markets and the promotion of social justice. Bdriven, face many challenges not faced by secular business schools. usiness schools from Catholic universities, striving to be mission Overarching the myriad complexities of teaching individual disciplinary bodies of knowledge is the question: Is there any meaning to the phrase “Catholic business education” or is “Catholic” superfluous? In other words, does “Catholic” make any difference to students or faculty and to the educational outcomes of a business school within a Catholic university? In recent years there have been many calls from Catholic scholars and Catholic university administrators for an examination of the meaning of Catholic business education.1 The call for examination of our Catholicity is not new. Questions of whether and how programs are distinct and distinctly Catholic have been asked repeatedly. The authors suggest there are two implications of our continual revisiting of these questions, one more favorable than the other. The favorable perspective: Our continual revisiting of the “Catholicity” question, as we label it, is borne out of a natural desire for continuous quality improvement. The less favorable alternative is that our revisiting comes from a suspicion that we are failing—that “Catholic” is in fact merely a superfluous adjective. Regardless of which view one takes, we argue that any examination into the Catholicity question must be highly focused, pragmatic, and engaging to faculty if there is going to be any chance of achieving meaningful insights. We further argue that these engagements should be pursued at the disciplinary level. For example, this paper explores the question of Catholicity in the context of economics education. Another issue, which we will explore in more detail later in the paper, is a disconnect in the view of markets between faculty from business and economics programs who tend to support market-based social policy solutions and faculty from the humanities and social sciences who often believe that markets promote social injustice. The major contribution of the paper is its proposition that this disconnect in the view of markets is, in fact, closely related to the Catholicity question and that any serious attempt to achieve a Catholic character in a business school must consider both. We believe that addressing the Catholicity question will simultaneously help students negotiate conflicting views of markets that we have identified in the teaching of economics. A significant payoff is that by so addressing these issues we will also improve stud (...truncated)


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David F Carrithers, Dean Peterson. Integrating a Social Justice Perspective in Economics Education: Creating a Distinctly Catholic Education, Journal of Catholic Education, 2010, Volume 13, Issue 4,