Financial Literacy Education with an Aboriginal Community: Identifying Critical Moments for Enabling Praxis

Abstract

Conventional financial literacy education (FLE) practices promote individual choice and responsibility for financial circumstances. The untruth connected to conventional FLE is that achieving financial well-being is possible after acquiring financial skills and knowledge and choosing to make effective financial decisions. In this article, I share an exploration of FLE practices with an Aboriginal community that unfolded after a conventional train-the-trainer financial literacy workshop failed to gain traction. Nineteen semi-structured interviews took place with community members to understand their experiences, interest and perceived relevance of FLE. The importance of site-specific FLE was revealed as the tension between individual wealth accumulation practices promoted in conventional FLE collided with Indigenous ways of being, knowing and doing. Identified are critical moments for reflection that may enable praxis in FLE. By enabling praxis an educator moves away from conventional one-size-fits-all approaches to FLE, where participants’ needs are assumed, and towards more tailored approaches.

Satisfacción con la vida, autoestima y optimismo financiero en estudiantes interculturales de México

“…Si bien el estudio de la educación financiera no es del todo vasto dentro del entorno intercultural, existen dos posturas que se complementan entre sí: la perspectiva individual y la cultural. Primeramente, según Blue (2019), la educación financiera hace referencia a las características de los individuos, es decir de las personas. Aquí, el optimismo financiero, visto como atributo personal, puede ser comprendido a través de otros aspectos relacionados con el optimismo en general (Dawson, 2017), donde es posible considerar a la satisfacción con la vida y la autoestima.…”

“…Los grupos originarios poseen elementos culturales únicos, tales como su cosmovisión y conocimiento ancestral, aspectos que hacen la diferencia dentro de la toma de decisiones económicas y, además, son factores clave para entender las actitudes y el comportamiento financiero de tales grupos. Considerando estos aspectos, es imperante la necesidad de estudiar el efecto que tiene la educación financiera en los grupos originarios; por ello, es significativo conocer el comportamiento financiero, el cual, según Blue (2019), ayudaría a entender a los grupos en situación de vulnerabilidad. En ese sentido, la economía conductual puede favorecer la explicación de la parte actitudinal de los individuos.…”

A curriculum of mathematical practices

“…It is also true that some users may find any or all of these ways to manage calculations difficult to use nonetheless, especially if an individual feels inadequate in their mathematical practices (Jorgensen, 2010). In another example, Canadian First Nations scholar Levon Blue (2019), evaluated the financial literacy programs offered by banks and other finance companies to people in her own First Nations community, and she was able to show and support mathematical practices that were culturally appropriate and that the site ontological view of 'doing' mathematics led to more viable budgeting practices for individuals in her community. Blue's example illustrates the need for a site-based or ontological view of mathematics and the curriculum that guides it.…”