Intersections of Financial Literacy, Citizenship, and Spirituality by Lucey Thomas A.;

Author:Lucey, Thomas A.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
Published: 2019-10-03T00:00:00+00:00

CONCLUSION

A quest for a spiritual or compassionate-basis to financial literacy provides a justice-oriented alternative to a system of selfishness that aligns with the philosophies of those who control economic and social resources (Arthur, 2012; Carr, 2012). This system guides formal public education systems (Sleeter, 2008; Van Hover, Hicks, Stoddard, & Lasanti, 2010) and revolves around a core group of decision-makers and their personal visions, rather than needs of a society as a whole (Picciano & Spring, 2013; Pinto, 2013). Social educators may consider the following next steps in developing a sustainable financial literacy curriculum focused on principles of spirituality.

The first step acknowledges that spirituality represents a process that requires each person’s deep introspection of his or her personal values and how they inform about his or her conceptions of financial literacy. Topics for consideration may include the patterns of values that financial decisions convey; the extent to which one’s place in life derive from their origins or their choices, their responsibilities to others less financially fortunate, and the extent to which their altruistic decisions contribute to systemic change in people’s lives.

Of course, the preceding step carries a presumption that one possesses a life of luxury with leisure time that affords opportunity for reflection. Greitens (2015) contrasts two arguing individuals in an exclusive boutique with a gathering of joyful children in an impoverished community. Although he emphasizes the emotional health of the impoverished children, his anecdote illustrates how reflection about values and financial relationships may take different directions in various social and economic contexts. Thus, compassion does not only occur in peaceful contexts.

The second step concerns resistance to instrumentation that claims to reliably interpret one’s spiritual sense of financial literacy. Rima (2013) provides an instrument to measure spiritual capital; however, the tool served to confirm findings of his qualitative analysis. Alexander and McLaughlin (2003) describe several strands within spirituality that offer the basis for creating instrumentation, yet given spirituality’s amorphous nature, one may question the appropriateness using a structured tool to interpret this phenomenon.

A third step involves the conduct of studies that use larger samples to examine the relationship between spirituality and financial literacy. Such processes may draw from Noddings’s (2008) four step care ethics model, or like curricula, to provide platforms for building safe environments under which these conditions may occur. Lucey’s (2018) four quadrants may also provide a basis for examining this framework in more depth. A spiritually-focused approach to education founded in meaning making and care represents a viable model for reframing financial literacy. Instilling a sense of compassion and stewardship within youth represents an essential part of a democratic and cooperative pro-social society.

Engagement in intellectual exercises that concern financial literacy and compassion represents a speculative pleasantry. The transition from theory to practice presents a more formidable challenge. While stimulating classroom conversation about alternative financial literacy conceptions offers allure, Westheimer (2015) points out that:

engaging in critical analysis does not necessarily foster the ability or commitment to participate … the ability to spot injustice is not organically linked to the inclination or ability to take action.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.