Rethinking The Pluralist Agenda In Economics Education

campaign to reform standard courses and curricula via the ‘integration of heterodox economic theories ’ (Barone, 1991: 16), then a pessimistic appraisal is indisputable. But positive possibilities begin to multiply if one instead conceives pluralism as a philosophy and practice of critical thinking.The latter view offers a cogent, student-centred approach to economics education. It also foregrounds a set of educational goals and values (including intellectual autonomy) that many academic economists find compelling.The breadth and strength of this common ground opens the door to cooperation across paradigmatic borders, e.g., heterodox and mainstream economists working together to integrate reflective judgment into the QAA’s list of ‘subject-specific skills’. One prominent advocate of the pluralism-as-critical thinking view is the Association for Heterodox Economics (AHE). In response to the QAA’s 2006 consultation request, the AHE called on the QAA to elaborate the critical thinking elements of the Economics Benchmarking Statement,‘to spell out what [the critical thinking approach] consists of, how it might usefully be taught, and how it migh