Consumer and Citizenship Education Today: A Comparative Analysis of Key Assumptions.

Overview & Synopsis

The report focuses on two aspects of social education in public schools--citizenship and consumer education. The major objectives of the report were to investigate assumptions of educators and policy makers regarding social education and to recommend ways of improving social education programs. The document is presented in three major sections. Section I provides an overview of citizenship and consumer education programs, identifies problems and tasks common to both types of programs, and investigates the relationship between citizen and consumer roles. Section II outlines assumptions by educators and policy makers regarding education and schooling. Major assumptions are that social roles such as consumer and citizen may be treated separately in social education and that formal education is an effective mechanism to promote individual social competence. Topics discussed include deficiencies in citizen and consumer behavior, the effectiveness of schooling in transmitting knowledge about consumerism and citizenship, and educational change. Section III presents conclusions and recommendations. The major conclusion is that integration of citizenship and consumer education will help reverse the current trend toward excessive specialization in social education. It is recommended that the federal government fund research to develop a common framework for social education, to clarify the role of schools in social education, and to further explicate the relationship between consumer and citizenship education. (DB)