Is UK economics teaching changing? Evaluating the new subject benchmark statement

Mearman, Andrew; Guizzo, Danielle; Berger, Sebastian

Abstract

© 2018, © 2018 The Association for Social Economics. This paper evaluates the recent reform to the curricular governance framework for UK Economics teaching: the revised Subject Benchmark Statement document for Economics (SBSE). The crisis of confidence in economics which was amplified by the global financial crisis presented an opportunity for fundamental change in economics teaching. The paper asks whether the new SBSE represents change. We ask whether the new SBSE is pluralist with regard to economic theory and method; how it treats the economy and its wider socio-political dimension; what are its educational goals and approach; and overall, how much change has it brought? The paper concludes that the new SBSE does not constitute change: it still exhibits limited pluralism, ignores ethics, power and politics and ignores key educational goals.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 17, 2018
• Online Publication Date: May 11, 2018
• Publication Date: Jul 3, 2018
• Deposit Date: Dec 18, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 11, 2019
• Journal: Review of Social Economy
• Print ISSN: 0034-6764
• Electronic ISSN: 1470-1162
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 76
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 377-396
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00346764.2018.1463447
• Keywords: pluralist economics
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/863564
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/00346764.2018.1463447
• Additional Information: Additional Information : This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Review of Social Economy on 11 May 2018, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/00346764.2018.1463447
• Contract Date: Dec 18, 2017