There is a growing movement to transform economics education. As part of her MA dissertation in economics Ingrid M. Rieser decided to capture this movement in a documentary. The short film featured in this blog post is a trailer. This is what Rieser says about it on the website with the full movie:

There is an increased criticism of economics and economists not adequately dealing with our societal issues, as most recently demonstrated by the global financial crisis. Voices are calling for change, and among that chorus there is a strong plea to make economics education more pluralist and related to the real world, giving economists-to-be a bigger toolbox and wider range of perspectives when dealing with increasingly complex economies and societies. […] The movement to change economics education is broad and diverse, with a variety of motivations and visions for change.

Some of these voices can also be heared in a BBC documentary from 2015 on the same topic. The makers note that “students decry a ‘dramatic narrowing of the curriculum’ that they say prefers algebra to the real world and teaches them there’s only one way to run an economy.” This program discusses “a manifesto signed by 65 university economics associations from over 30 different countries” to change the curriculum. The emphasis in this BBC documentary is on whether the curriculum should include alternative perspectives to neoclassical economics.

The focus of our sub-project F will be complementary, namely on the place of ethics and values – and specifically virtues and human flourishing – in teaching economics. Results of the entire research project will be translated for educational use in this sub-project, both at a high school level and at an academic level, in order to overcome the ‘disconnect’ with real-world concerns that students currently experience.