Where is the Economics in Economic Education?

Abstract

This article represents a deviation from the JEE's typical item. It should prove stimulating to all economic educators, however, and provoke lively discussion. McKenzie sharply challenges a notion that many teachers of economics have accepted on faith—that a knowledge of economics will help people to make more intelligent decisions in their roles as citizens. He finds the “citizenship argument” to be questionable as a basis for supporting economic education, and raises questions about the research that economic education specialists are doing. McKenzie urges that economic educators “make greater use of the tools of analysis which they teach in the study of what they teach.”