Heterodox Economy in the Neoliberal Education Age

• Main Authors: Juan Agustín Franco Martínez, Miguel Angel Garcia-Gordillo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-05-01
• Series: Social Sciences
• Subjects: economic thought; Marx; pedagogy; ethics; university; neoliberalism
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/9/5/81

Since the last global crisis, the critical debate on economy and the teaching of heterodox economy has resurfaced. To review the magnitude and pedagogical consequences for critical education in economics and finance is the objective of this paper, which also proposes a didactic strategy based on an experience developed at the University of Extremadura (Spain) within the framework of the Didactic Innovation Group named “Ethics of University Teaching”. For this purpose, the educational implications of teaching and learning the conventional economy that derive from behavioral and cognitive psychology and discourses on entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility are reviewed. It is concluded that the bias in the education of heterodox economy supposes a deterioration of the fundamental educational objectives, tending towards an indoctrination in the neoliberal ideology (patriarcapitalist) and to a serious loss of democratic values. For all the above, a more pluralist pedagogy at the epistemological and methodological levels—from critical psychology to critical economics or critical management studies—would help to favor a more emancipatory educational process, committed to social justice.