How teachers describe their teaching about personal finance

The purpose of this master thesis has been to investigate how private economics is taught in social studies teaching for grades 4-6 through teachers' descriptions of personal finance as part of the social studies subject's civic education assignment. The purpose has also been to investigate how and in what way teachers use teaching materials in their teaching of personal finance. The selected research and literature for the degree project deal with the subject social studies and the civic education assignment, the curriculum and syllabus, social science didactic research and teaching of economics in general and personal finance in particular. Furthermore, research and literature on teachers' difficulties with the subject of personal finance and the use of teaching aids in the subject of social studies are also presented. Little research can be found regarding the teaching of personal finance, especially for younger ages such as grades 4–6, which strengthens the relevance of investigating the purpose of this master thesis. The theoretical perspectives used as a starting point for analyzing the empirical work of the master thesis are Dewey's pragmatic perspective and Vygotsky's socio-cultural perspective. The survey was conducted using qualitative semi-structured interviews as a method. The survey involved six respondents, all of whom are active social studies teachers in grades 4-6. The results show that the respondents see a clear and important purpose of the teaching to enable the students to become responsible adult citizens who can make wise financial decisions. Furthermore, it appears from the results that teaching materials are common in the teaching of personal finance. The respondents mainly link the concept of personal finance with household or an individual's financial planning. A conclusion that can be drawn from the results of this master thesis and the previous research is that even though personal finance teaching is a relatively new social science didactic research area, its relevance increases when research emphasizes the importance of teaching being a part of schools’ mission to succeed in their civic education. In step with this, personal finance is given more space in the syllabus for social studies, which is an important factor in the work with a school where students are given the right conditions for adult life.