Financial citizenship as a broader democratic context of financial literacy

Abstract

Financial citizenship is crucial in our modern world. Financial citizenship is underpinned by the education of future generations so that they can understand both their local and global economies to make the best financial decisions concerning their lives. This paper discusses financial literacy, how it relates to individual citizens, and how it correlates with social, political and business spheres. According to current financial capability models, every individual’s financial well-being can be boosted by developing their financial knowledge and competency, which will improve their motivations and confidence. Societal constructs significantly create financial socialization, which increases our accessibility and engagements with institutions, businesses, political systems and society as a whole. Being educated about the details required for financial literacy is every human being’s right. Citizens have been characterized as being personally responsible, participatory or justice oriented; each person’s specific perspective can impact their financial lives, which supports the importance of the current concept of financial citizenship. Boosting global education about economic citizenship will help to reduce poverty, create more sustainable economic environments, and improve social outcomes and the life satisfaction of the world population. These concepts will be explored and discussed in this paper.

Inviting students to independent judgement: Teaching financial literacy as citizenship education

“…Instead, the future of financial literacy teaching and learning will depend upon its presumptive societal significance. Here, citizenship education, including criticism and discussion (Khalil, 2021;Lefrançois et al, 2017), cannot only educate independent and self-sufficient individual, but also help students to grasp financial concepts and further understand financial and societal prerequisites important for their future (cf. Biesta, 2011).…”

“…In this field of teaching, the democratic aspects of being financially educated and able are put forward (Amagir et al, 2018) and neo-classical aims of traditional financial literacy education should be disclosed and discussed (Sonu and Marri, 2018). Several studies argue for the use of Westheimer and Kahne's (2004) conceptions of citizenship when teaching financial literacy (Björklund and Sandahl, 2020;Khalil, 2021;Lefrançois et al, 2017;Lucey and Bates, 2012) which emphasise that financial education should support individuals' ability to take active part in current society as well as the ability to take leadership in future financial and societal change.…”

Financial Technologies in the Cycle of Poor Mental Health and Financial Hardship: Towards Financial Citizenship

“…In 2009, Leyshon defined "financial citizenship" as a "concept that recognizes the significance of the financial system to everyday life and confers a right and ability on individuals and households to participate fully in the economy and to accumulate wealth" [48]. As such the concept of financial citizenship intends to contribute to a "critical reevaluation of the concept of financial inclusion" [48], which has been criticised for yielding only marketbased interventions that engage individuals purely as consumers rather than citizens [48,54]; for focusing on access over usage [59]; and for introducing new problems, such as indebtedness [4].…”

Citizenship Education in the K to 12 Junior High School Economics Curriculum in the Philippines: A Content Analysis

“…Westheimer and Kahne (2004) concluded that personally responsible citizenship, participatory citizenship, and justice-oriented citizenship are the three conceptions of citizenship based on practices for democratic citizenship and educational theories. Here, Khalil (2021) distinguished these three conceptions of citizenship by offering core assumptions. Personally responsible citizens should be honest, law-abiding, and have good character in order to improve society and solve social problems.…”

“…Participatory citizens should take leadership roles and be active in order to improve society and solve social problems. Justice-oriented citizens should be critical about political, social, and economic structures in order to improve society and solve social problems (Khalil, 2021). Recent studies, on the other hand, have suggested pluralistic or multicultural citizenship, which are interwoven with critical democratic citizenship (Mathews and Dilworth, 2008; Knowles, 2018; Rodriguez, 2018; Shanks, 2019; Falkner and Payne, 2021).…”