Abstract
This article presents the findings related to teaching beliefs and pedagogical practices of a study that examined how financial literacy educators educate adults from underserved population groups in community-based settings. The study is theoretically framed in the teaching beliefs and culturally responsive education literature. Findings reveal a complex interaction of educators’ teaching beliefs that affect their pedagogical approaches: financial literacy as understanding, the importance of the cultural context, and emotions and money. These beliefs resulted in a pedagogy that highlighted the everyday financial realities of learners’ lives in a cultural context.
We live in a time of economic uncertainty. The world debt crisis and the high unemployment rates have brought not only greater financial challenges but also greater recognition of the need for financial literacy education (FLE). Although FLE has always been a need for adult learners given that the financial system continually grows in complexity (Jabaily, 2011), until recently (Buckland, 2010; Tisdell, Taylor, & Sprow, 2010), there has been little scholarly attention to FLE specifically in the field of adult education.
There have been numerous studies that inform adult education about FLE efforts aimed at adult learners within the fields of economics and consumer studies. These studies explore issues in financial education and behavior of college students (Borden, Lee, Serido, & Collins, 2008), effects of financial education on consumer behavior change (Lusardi & Mitchell, 2007), investment education programs (Loibl & Hira, 2007), and goals and effects of community and workplace FLE programs (Vitt, 2009). Many FLE studies of adult learners focus on a more moneyed population, though there are also some studies that are specifically of low-income adult learners (Hogarth & Swanson, 1995; Lyons, Chang, & Scherpf, 2006) in community-based programs. There are also a number of studies grounded in economics that focus on the FLE needs of specific population groups, such as women (Loibl & Hira, 2007), or ethnic population groups (Borden et al., 2008; Spader, Ratcliffe, Montoya, & Skillern, 2009), and that examine the wealth disparity between people of color and those who are White and what can be done about it (Lucey & Giannangelo, 2006; Lui, Robles, Leondar-Wright, Brewer, & Adamson, 2006; Olsen & Whitman, 2012).
These discussions make an important contribution to what is known about FLE with adult learners, though these studies tend to be grounded in economic models or theories of behavior change and not in adult learning theories. In addition, there is little understanding of what FL educators believe is important for teaching overall in the FLE literature, or of how to teach while attempting to take into account the cultural context of the learners. Yet researchers in adult education have noted educators’ beliefs about teaching have an enormous impact on what they do in practice (Pratt & Associates, 1998; Taylor, 2003). As Pajares (1992) notes, beliefs are “the best indicators of the decisions individuals make throughout their lives” (p. 307). In light of the lack of studies of FLE in adult education, the purpose of this article is to discuss primarily the qualitative findings from a larger mixed-methods study specifically relating to educators’ beliefs about teaching and their attempts at culturally responsive pedagogy. The purpose of the larger study was to examine how financial literacy educators teach adults from underserved population groups in community-based settings; it focused on the educators’ beliefs about teaching, curriculum design, pedagogy, and evaluation. The research questions specifically related to the findings discussed here include the following:
Research Question 1: What are teacher beliefs about FLE, and how are these beliefs implemented in their educational practice?
Research Question 2: To what extent do financial educators attempt to implement pedagogical strategies that are culturally relevant to the learners with whom they work, and how do they do so in practice?
The study was funded by the National Endowment for Financial Education® (NEFE®) and is detailed in the final report to the sponsor (Tisdell et al., 2010), and the quantitative findings have also been discussed elsewhere (Taylor, Tisdell, & Sprow Forté, 2012). In this article, we focus primarily on the qualitative findings, though aspects of the quantitative findings are summarized throughout to give context and depth to the analysis.
Theoretical Framework and Related Literature
The vast majority of FLE studies are quantitative and do not overtly state a theoretical framework. Nevertheless, as Lyons and Neelakantan (2008) observe, most FLE studies are grounded in literature on behavior change, risk investment, and economic development. Two intersecting theoretical bodies of literature specifically relating to adult education inform this study, namely, teaching beliefs and culturally responsive education.
Teaching Beliefs and Culturally Responsive Education
What educators believe about teaching usually tells something about how and why they teach. Teaching beliefs are conceptualized here drawing on Pratt’s (1992; Pratt & Associates, 1998) research on teaching perspectives, which sees beliefs as the defining attribute of teaching. This is consistent with other research that suggests teaching beliefs among adult educators are significant in shaping practice (Dirkx & Spurgin, 1992; Taylor, Tisdell, & Gusic, 2007). Even though teaching beliefs are not static but characteristically complex and evolving, there is a strong link between teachers’ actions in the classroom and their core beliefs about teaching. Pratt (1992) identified three types of beliefs fundamental to a perspective on teaching: epistemic beliefs (views of knowledge, learning, evaluation; the “why” of what and how they teach), normative beliefs (views of social roles, responsibilities and relationships in teaching), and procedural beliefs (tactical and strategic intentions) in teaching—the how, when, and justification of actions in the classroom. These three belief structures form a comprehensive and interconnected framework for understanding the beliefs of financial literacy educators.
Pratt (1992; Pratt & Associates, 1998) discusses teaching beliefs more generally and does not give particular attention to beliefs about culture in the educational process. Clearly, as many adult educators have discussed, issues of gender, race, class, and culture are always present in the learning environment (Brookfield, 2004; Johnson-Bailey & Cervero, 1998) and need to be considered in designing culturally relevant education (Guy, 1999; Sheared, Johnson-Bailey, Colin, Peterson, & Brookfield, 2010). Furthermore, what teachers believe about culture, class, and pedagogy affects what they do in practice, a point that both K-12 (Gay, 2010) and counselor educators (Hays, 2007) highlight in relation to helping address cultural complexity in practice. Although much pedagogy literature focuses on how to facilitate learning for the individual, the emphasis in culturally responsive education is on considering the sociocultural context, how members of cultural groups are portrayed in the curriculum (Sealey-Ruiz, 2007), and the wide variety of teaching strategies that draw on the cultural realities of learners’ lives (Alfred, 2002; Gay, 2010; Guy, 1999). It highlights the importance of realizing that power relations in society based on race, ethnicity, gender, and social class affect the learning environment, which is often discussed in adult education and critical pedagogy circles (Brookfield, 2004; Johnson-Bailey & Cervero, 1998). Some versions also emphasize the importance of considering the communal dimensions of how a particular culture makes meaning, whether or not theirs is a collectivist or an individualist culture, and the relative importance in the community of specific factors such as spirituality and community empowerment (Ntseane, 2011). But as Sandlin (2005) notes, while these issues are discussed in adult education, such an examination of power relations is seldom discussed in consumer education circles, and broadly speaking, FLE is a form of consumer education.
Culture and Class in Financial Literacy Education
There is a paucity of studies in FLE that deal with power relations relating to institutional settings, or in relation to cultural groups (Willis, 2008); most studies focus on FLE content. Some authors highlight differences in culture and social class related to access to financial resources among various groups, to differential treatment by financial institutions, whereas others explore the complexity of culture in financial education and counseling (Lui et al., 2006; Vitt, 2009).
Within the field of adult education, Buckland’s (2010) study of low-income Canadians explored institutional barriers and constraints to financial well-being within a social context. In spite of numerous barriers, many participants did indicate financial knowledge and were able to tighten budgets and engage in activities that increased their income to some degree in order to survive, although there was only so much they could do because of institutional constraints and not necessarily because of a lack of knowledge. In addition, underserved populations often benefit most from faith-based and community-based programs, increasing the participants’ level of comfort and providing hope and motivation to change their behavior (Vitt, 2009).
Most general FLE studies, apart from those mentioned, focus on the content and/or effectiveness of programs and ignore the uniqueness of the populations being served. They tend to be based on the assumption that having greater financial knowledge will increase responsible financial behavior, although knowledge does not necessarily result in behavior change (O’Connell, 2008). Programs and studies often make use of helpful but overly standardized “canned curriculum,” created by numerous financial education organizations with little attention paid to the role of financial beliefs and attitudes, which affect behavior (Jorgensen & Savla, 2010). Gudmunson and Danes (2011) highlight this point in their recent review of family financial socialization: that people’s beliefs and behaviors about money are rooted in their family socialization, and shape their attitudes/behavior, which is also going to be related to cultural beliefs. Just as teaching beliefs shape teaching practices and behaviors (Pratt & Associates, 1998; Taylor, 2003), financial beliefs rooted in family history affect financial behavior. Hence, successful FLE must address the beliefs and emotions that are part of the context of people’s cultural lives.
Understanding the unique needs of particular population groups is key to good teaching in any setting, although there have been few studies of those responsible for FL teaching: namely, the financial educators themselves (Loibl, 2010). What studies there are tend to focus more on college students rather than those in community-based settings. In a recent pilot study of teaching college students financial concepts, Borden et al. (2008) examined the financial knowledge increases in groups using variables of race, ethnicity, and gender, and found that students intended to reduce their risky financial behaviors in light of their new knowledge. Although mentioning the value of the seminar style, actual pedagogical strategies are not addressed with depth. Given the lack of studies that deal with financial educators and their attempts at educating adults in community-based settings, there is a need for understanding how financial education is taught, with an eye toward cultural issues and its relationship to the educational process.
Method
Although the focus here is reporting primarily on the qualitative findings of a sequential mixed-methods study (Creswell, Plano Clark, Gutmann, & Hanson, 2003), some information from the quantitative portion provides some necessary context. A total of 245 community-based FL educators filled out an online survey consisting of questions about: (a) demographics of both the educators and their learners; (b) the location, curriculum, and objectives of the FLE program; (c) educator beliefs about FLE; (d) classroom practices used and deemed most effective; and (e) beliefs and practices pertaining to inclusive and culturally responsive pedagogy.
At the close of the online survey, respondents indicated if they would be willing to participate in a qualitative interview. Fifteen individuals deemed to be most culturally responsive (based on their answers related to particular criteria aimed to assess culturally responsive strategies) were interviewed. Examples of some of these criteria focused on the use of teaching methods such as “stories or examples featuring members of diverse groups,” “financial education in languages other than English,” and “discussion of community financial issues.” Eight participants identified as White, five as African American, one as Latina, and one as Native American; there were nine women and six men ranging in age from 35 to 54 years. All 15 teach learners of many cultural backgrounds and in programs aimed at either low-income learners or communities of color.
Interviews lasted approximately 60 to 90 minutes. Given that the literature indicates that teaching beliefs shape educators’ practice (Pratt & Associates, 1998), interview questions were developed to further explore financial educators’ beliefs about teaching and FLE, how they go about choosing or developing curriculum, choice of pedagogical strategies, and how they teach in light of the cultural background of their learners. Three face-to-face interviews took place because of their geographic proximity to the researchers, and the rest took place on the telephone. Three classes were also observed to better understand and frame the interview questions. Interview data were analyzed using two concurrent methods: use of NVivo 8, a qualitative analysis software, and manual thematic analysis. Through a constant comparative analysis, data were separated from the original transcript to view the data in their unique form and identify their essential elements (Patton, 2002; Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Analysis continued until there was a consensus on interpretation. Once each category was “saturated,” when no new information seemed to come forth during analysis, each researcher reviewed the data within each category to verify the integrity of the analysis. To enhance the trustworthiness of the findings, member checks were conducted as part of the data analysis (Patton, 2002). NVivo 8 was used to filter the verified coded data, enabling us to pull data specific to topic of interest, such as the educators’ use of emotion, humor, or stories in the classroom.
Findings
Whereas the quantitative part of the study is discussed in detail elsewhere (Tisdell et al., 2010; Taylor et al., 2012), the most relevant quantitative findings related to teaching beliefs and their approaches to pedagogy and sociocultural influences are included briefly to enhance aspects of the qualitative findings. The findings are organized around educator beliefs, the curriculum in light of the life circumstances of their learners, their pedagogical strategies, and the meanings of culture.
Educator Teaching Beliefs
Educators’ beliefs about teaching indicate that they believe (a) financial education is predominantly about helping learners understand financial information, (b) learners’ attitudes and behaviors are shaped by sociocultural factors and family legacy, and (c) learners’ beliefs and behaviors about money are affected by emotions related to the larger context of their lives. Most (95%) believe that the primary purpose of financial education is to provide information and help people make informed financial choices. Only 50% indicated that its purpose was also “to help individuals contribute to society” and “to help learners confront financial inequities in their lives and in the community;” interestingly, there was a statistically significant difference where people of color rated this more highly than the White respondents.
Our interviewees highlighted three primary beliefs that are central to FLE related to definitions of financial literacy: financial literacy as understanding, the importance of attending to the social context, and the importance of attending to emotions in FLE.
Financial literacy as understanding
Educators’ primary definition of financial literacy was about helping learners understand financial information. Many focused on understanding specific skills. Sally, for example, stated, “To be financially literate, you’ve really got to understand the credit world well.” Nettie also stated, “Financial literacy is just understanding how to pay your bills on time and to have money in the bank and not be overdrawn. That to me is the basics of financial literacy.” However, these educators indicated that it was not only important to have access to essential financial information, learners also needed to be able to apply it in the context of their personal financial situation. For example, Sophie stated that a financially literate individual “would be able to interact with a bank in non–self-destructive ways.”
The importance of the social context
The educators also indicated an awareness of financial issues not simply in individual terms but also on how learners’ attitudes about finances were affected by the social context, especially by the family of origin or cultural group. From a practical perspective, many highlighted the importance of helping learners get in touch with their own beliefs about money and examine where they came from, the assumption being that behavior with money only changes with examination of attitudes. For example, when Gloria talked about how attitudes about money can have generations of influence, she rhetorically asks, “How do we change a family legacy around what we believe about money?” and then goes on to say, “Because the dollars are not the legacy. The attitudes are the legacy.” Sophie and Denise also highlighted the importance of the sociocultural context and helping learners think about where their attitudes about money came from. In discussing how she educates, Sophie noted in particular: We start with a kind of history, helping people see kind of the connection between patterns in their childhood that they may have observed in their parents, messages they received from authority figures and media and their friends. Like one of the first questions is: What is your first memory of money? What did you do with the first money that you have that was your own? What was your first job?—you know, we ask questions that help people see that these patterns . . . the things you are struggling with now that didn’t just come from nowhere.
Some of the educators also talked about how financial education helps learners effect change in the sociocultural context. Jerry, for example, in reference to his experience of doing financial education, stated, “we also get feedback that people will come in and say, ‘I’m now talking to my parents about money. I’m talking to my sister about money in a way that I couldn’t before.’” He highlighted how these individuals affect their family and sociocultural context. Some of the other educators also emphasized that capacity building is important in doing community financial work, so that financial education can multiply itself and effect change in the community.
Emotions about money
Although these educators indicated that financial literacy was about helping people understand content in the hopes that it would effect change in their behavior, there was a recognition that people have emotional issues attached to money that affect their attitudes and behavior. Although there were no questions in the survey that specifically asked about emotions, most educators we interviewed touched on this idea. For example, Gloria noted, “you’ve got to help them understand, you know, their priorities and help them know how to manage their emotions around money. So I spend a lot of time with that.” She emphasized starting positive within the learning community and stated, “I ask the community ‘what do they want to know. What matters? When you think about something that you’ve done with money that you’re really, really proud of, what is that?’” Jerry also discussed using a technique at the beginning of his classes where he has people draw a picture of their financial situation, which not only gets at their social context but also often engages emotions and the overall context of their lives. In describing how this works, he noted, Whether it’s sad faces or raining or stormy weather or clouds, it’s transformed the feeling of themselves and taken them outside and put it on the paper and now they’re all talking about it and they’re sharing it with everyone else.
Whereas these educators talked about the overall context of learners’ lives in relation to financial issues, and the emotions that it evokes and how they deal with these in their pedagogy, others talked more about the fact that you need to take into account people’s emotions when teaching, but they did not necessarily discuss emotions at length. For example, Jack noted, “They’re on welfare or whatever, and that’s not something they’re proud of,” so he tried to avoid making the discussion too personal because of the sense of shame they might have. Louise noted that she explains to people that she tends to smile and be happy, but she goes on to say, I want them to know that I’m never happy about that they’re having a bad problem. I’m happy that they’re getting the help, so lots of times people find that very approachable. So, later I’ll have grown men come up to me and they’ll wait to talk to me sometimes where they’re almost like crying, that somebody’s there that can help them.
In sum, then, there is a recognition and belief among these educators that to one degree or another, one needs to take into account both the sociocultural context of the learners and the emotions that are attached to financial issues and money in teaching about financial literacy.
Curriculum and Learners’ Life Circumstances
A wide variety of financial literacy curricular materials are available online, published by various financial organizations. In all, 56% of the survey respondents and all the qualitative interviewees either adapted curriculum or developed their own to better reflect the life circumstances of their learners, including learners’ race, gender, class, and income level, which can indicate their attempt to be culturally responsive. At the same time, they felt that curricular materials are often unable to anticipate the specific situations in which the learners live, such as the difficulty with low-income learners making a budget using published materials because of the absence of food stamps or other public assistance from published budgets. Sally, for example, talked about the importance of attending to the audience: Well, I guess, first of all I’d say, pay close attention to your audience and make sure you know who it is that you’re going to be working with for all the specific classes. And make sure that you’re going to be addressing their particular needs. So that means crafting activities that are going to be appealing to them.
Similarly, Jack, in looking for materials for his low-income learners, acknowledged contradictions between the materials and their actual life circumstances. He found that one curriculum required that learners get “$1000 in a savings account. You’ve got to get that as your emergency fund. Well, the people that I’m working with, that’s not realistic.”
Sophie discussed her process of creating a curriculum that focuses on the specific needs and life circumstances of her learners: We invented a homeless woman and based our curriculum the rest of the time on this homeless woman. We called her Suzy and we just invented all these things like Suzy has this much income, Suzy pays this much for rent, Suzy pays this much for public transportation, Suzy pays for cell phone. What kind of resources might Suzy have and then we got into other things like Suzy’s . . . Suzy just got approved for disability and now her income is this. She will have this much and this much. Now her ex boyfriend heard she has income and he decides to show up again in her life. What do you think Suzy is going to do? How do you think she might handle this? Suzy feels she is going to make mistakes now that she had money. So we just . . . it was fabulous . . . It really worked and I am planning to write a curriculum that would be aimed towards homeless women.
Interviews also suggest that language issues and cultural bias need to be eliminated from the curriculum. Language is a persistent problem for educators who teach in populations with large numbers of immigrants and speakers of other languages. Educators emphasized that materials need to be available in other languages.
Pedagogy in the Financial Education Classroom
Most educators believed that the primary purpose of financial education is to provide learners with sound financial information that they can make use of in their lives. This belief, in general, is one that undergirds their pedagogy. The survey indicated the following methods were most effective in getting across that information: (a) drawing on learners’ financial experiences, (b) engaging in small group and whole class discussions, (c) sharing aspects of the educator’s financial experience, and (d) including stories or examples featuring members of diverse groups.
But the qualitative findings provide a more nuanced picture about what this means in their educational practice. More specifically, interviewees emphasized presenting information, interactive approaches to teaching, and storytelling. In addition, a culturally responsive approach involved translating information in a manner appropriate to the audience’s culture.
Presentation of information
Their emphasis on presentation of information was manifested through a reliance on lectures, visuals, and handouts and was driven by the need to cover content as well as the hope that providing/sharing information will change behavior. Lectures with PowerPoint presentations were used most often in an effort to present the information in an organized way and to promote class discussion. For example, Frank explained how he used lecture and PowerPoint to get a particular point across: First I would use the curriculum. I would have my PowerPoint. I have various budgeting breakdowns. On certain line I would show you what I show in budgeting and with the PowerPoint I can go to different lines of my budget, on my budget class I would give five examples of different budgets.
The educators also made use of other visual aids to cement certain points. For example, Sally used posters with financial sayings, such as “It’s not important how much you make, it’s important how much you keep.” Visuals were also used as a way to address different learning styles. For instance, Vera stated, I like to use visuals, because we have visual learners as well as auditory learners, so I make sure that I always have a board or, or a paper or something, and as we’re talking about things, I’ll put things up on the board.
Interactive approaches
A second pedagogical strategy that the financial educators used involved interactive approaches. It is through an interactive approach that the presenting information is modified, where learners take on a more active role in the learning experience. These educators draw on learners’ financial experiences, which helps foster discussion and offers an opportunity to learn in a variety ways, thus helping address different learning styles and preferences.
Most of the financial educators interviewed try to create a teaching environment where the learners feel free to ask questions, so there is an ongoing exchange between the learners and educators, and/or a technique to help learners think more deeply about financial issues. For example, Ryan, noted, And I try to explain to them that the better the questioning, the more questions, the better the workshop . . . there is no such thing as a silly question . . . I will stop and say, “Go ahead and ask me some questions.”
Gloria used questions to assess understanding as well as to provide their interest about particular financial topics. For example, she explained, So I have a series of questions that I ask them. Things that are not shaming, you know. Who here knows a predatory [lender] . . . Who knows what they do? Tell me what you know. I say that a lot: Tell me what you know. What do you know about (the topic)? What do you want to know about (a topic), you know?
In these instances, Gloria is attempting to both find out what they know already, and what they want to know about, so that she is making sure to address what is the most relevant to them, in their community and sociocultural context.
A second interactive approach the educators used involved learners in both large and small group activities, which facilitated sharing of financial experiences among learners, collaborative learning, and promoting the development of a classroom community. Bill described how he uses group work that encourages the sharing among learners: We have group work where they’re talking with each other . . . I’ll have flip charts on the walls. And I’ll put them all across the classroom and as soon as people come in, I’ll have everybody break into groups of about a dozen or half a dozen people and there are four questions. The first question is “The hardest part about saving money for me is . . .” and the participant will jot their answer down on the chart. Second question is “The worst part about using credit for me is . . .” Everybody has a response.
In many instances, educators use smaller forums for people to explore their own issues around money, to state what they need to know, to express emotions about it, and to get new information. The interaction made what can be somewhat sterile financial information more personal and relevant to the learners’ life context.
Another interactive approach was the use of hands-on activities that are often conducted in the context of a small group and/or can be done in a large group. Once again, Gloria, who has people move around in class a good bit, explained, We do an exercises midway where they have to get up and move around the room. So I’ll do things like put agree, disagree, neutral, or uncertain, and I’ll make statements about money and they move back and forth about which statement they most closely view themselves as far as—it’s too hard to budget, you know. Agree, disagree, and then I ask them, so, tell me, tell me why you agree with that.
Use of stories
A third pedagogical approach that the financial educators found important was the use of stories. The stories were often personal and deeply relevant to the topic of financial literacy, and it helped make the information more applicable to the learners’ everyday financial lives. Stories help give personal meaning to financial information. As Louise explained, “Stories stick and people will remember the story.” Also, personal stories can create a more engaging learning experience. Charlotte explained, “I get them to share something that they’re comfortable with. Make it—make the classroom theirs. When they own the process, they open up and want to share stories about what is happening with them.”
Some educators used aspects of their own story as well as the stories of others to make particular points. Nettie explained, I am storyteller . . . I talk about how some people have a money personality. You know, some people are savers and people are not savers. And so I’ll bring a story out about how my son is this way and my daughter is this way.
It is often through stories that learners realize that others have had similar experiences, but even more significantly, these educators often share stories of success and financial recovery, providing a sense of hope. For example, Jerry discusses the impact of using his own as well as the learners’ stories in the financial literacy classroom: It’s about using stories instead of data . . . throughout the class every week, people are talking about the changes that they are making themselves and then what happens is that when people see the other participants making changes, that’s what provides them the courage to make changes themselves.
So the stories in these instances helped people make a connection to the content, helped inspire learners to believe that they could make changes in their lives, and in some cases, helped form a learning community.
But sharing stories also comes with a caution. Louise, for example, discussed this point and noted, You need to understand who your audience is so you can relate to them. And you need to really feel comfortable to share stories, whether they are personal stories about yourself or about somebody you met, but you never reveal that person’s privacy.
As discussed above, in response to the concern of stories sometimes being too personal, Sophie invented a story about a homeless woman named Suzy and based her curriculum on this fictitious woman’s story. Suzy creates some distance and, in her words, “part of the cultural context of homeless people is this paranoia and suspicion about not letting people get too close,” so the use of the fictional Suzy helped the group deal with issues without them being too personal.
Meanings of Culture in Attempts at Culturally Responsive Education
In exploring financial educators’ culturally responsive approach to financial education, we chose to interview educators who rated teaching approaches directly related to culture and community more highly in the survey. Through these interviews, we could glean a deeper understanding of how such financial educators attempted to deal with cultural issues and of what this meant to the practice of teaching in the financial education classroom.
Educators’ attention to such issues was discussed more often in light of particular communities or subcultures within that community rather than with a fully conscious consideration of ethnicity or race. They emphasized the importance of knowing the community issues, financial and otherwise, and responding accordingly. For example, Sophie’s development, discussed above, of the fictional character of the homeless woman, Suzy, was a direct attempt to be sensitive to the needs of homeless women and their subculture. Louise focused more on the financial issues of the subculture of the military. She explained a particular program she does for this particular group: And it’s for the military that have either just come back from deployment or they’re getting ready to go back out on deployment. And I helped that military community understand ways that they could protect their credit histories by the Active Duty Military Alert, how to freeze their credit files . . . because so many of them were starting to worry because they were going to be gone for such long periods of time, of how to protect their credit history. Because their credit history is critical to their security clearances.
The financial issues of people from a particular group were the primary concern of these educators rather than a particular race or ethnic culture. This is not to suggest, however, that these educators were not concerned with race or ethnic cultural issues, and there was consideration of the fact that economic status and financial difficulty often intersect with race and ethnic culture. A few participants, for example, referred to the disproportionate presence of payday lenders in communities of color. Some also referred to acting as cultural translators when guest speakers from financial institutions might come to give FL presentations in such communities. Vera, who is Latina, and does much FLE in the Latino and African American communities, explained it this way in referring to many financial professionals and how she works with them: It’s in any profession you get used to jargon, or you get used to the way you talk, and, and, we have to try and bring people back to . . . especially when we’re dealing with some—like when you are dealing with women just coming out of an abusive situation, um, you know the last thing they want to be is judged, or, you know, talked down to, so it’s very, like, you have to be very sensitive of those things. So, I think that we are able to bring that to the table.
Thus, Vera acts as a cross-cultural communicator for those who have no idea how to deal with the community. Like Vera, many of these educators emphasized the importance of not judging people based on their finances and the decisions that they have made or not made. They also emphasized the importance of genuine caring and in learning about the community in trying to be culturally responsive. For example, Gloria, who is African American, explained, “I let the culture drive the lesson,” and went on to say, “I learn about the community,” but explained, “I don’t have to be Asian to be able to work well in an Asian community. I don’t have to be Latino to work well with a Latino community . . . I just have to care.” But for her, caring meant that you take time to learn how the particular community works around financial issues.
In sum then, those who were the most culturally responsive tend not only to provide the financial information but also to use the topics that come up in the group/community. They emphasize that all people, regardless of culture, have strong emotions about money that are often connected to their hopes and dreams. Many of them emphasized the necessity of knowing what is important in different subcultures, using the hot topics in the group, making use of stories, and trying to foster some financially knowledgeable leaders in their own cultural communities.
Discussion
Unlike other studies that focus more on learners and whether or not they change their financial behavior based on FLE, the findings of this study focus on educators and their beliefs and pedagogy in their attempts at culturally responsive FLE in community-based settings. On the surface, the various approaches to teaching shared by the FL educators may not seem that profound and are likely typical of many educators. However, significant insights are revealed about the nature of beliefs, how educators manage these beliefs in the context of FLE, and the influence of the sociocultural context on teaching financial literacy. Furthermore, this research and similar studies remind educators: “Beliefs and values are not minor, they are fundamental” (Pratt & Associates, 1998, p. 16). It is only through the engagement of beliefs that teachers can begin to improve practice. As such, this study offers insights on the teaching beliefs of FL educators and their relationship to culturally responsive financial education.
The first is with regard to educators’ teaching beliefs and how they attempt to work with the underlying family scripts that inform their learners’ beliefs about money. These educators believed that FLE is largely about delivering financial information in the hopes that learners will change their behavior; yet their belief structure was actually more complex than that. Using Pratt and Associates’ (1998) theoretical framework, their predominant normative beliefs (views of social roles and responsibilities in teaching) centered on the presentation of new knowledge and skills. Yet these were complemented by their procedural beliefs of making use of interactive approaches to teaching and use of financial stories. Furthermore, most interviewees believed that helping their learners get in touch with their beliefs and family scripts about money was central to effecting lasting change. In essence, they argued that it is impossible to change people’s financial behavior without considering the beliefs that inform the behavior, a point also highlighted in recent literature (Gudmunson & Danes, 2011). Like teaching beliefs, these attitudes also reside at the core of other fundamental decisions individuals make in their everyday lives.
But these insights also relate to Pratt’s (1992; Pratt & Associates, 1998) notion of epistemic beliefs in what these educators believe about knowledge. Their belief that knowledge is related to content is primary. Yet they also believe successful financial behavior cannot occur just by learning new knowledge and skills about personal finance; it is also important for learners to engage prior experiences (family scripts) about personal finances within a social context. Furthermore, learners’ experiences around money are laden with strong emotions that are likely rooted in cultural values and individual experiences with money. Such emotions must be kept in mind and ideally dealt with if successful FLE is to be sustained over time.
Second, these interviewees made attempts to be culturally responsive, in that they also believe that one must consider the cultural context that informs the financial realities and life circumstances of learners’ lives in attending to curricular and pedagogical issues. Indeed, such a concern is a hallmark of culturally responsive education in any setting (Gay, 2010, Sealey-Ruiz, 2007). They had an expanded sense of culture that includes race/ethnicity as it intersects with gender and class as typically discussed by many in adult education (Alfred, 2002; Guy, 1999; Johnson-Bailey & Alfred, 2006; Sheared et al., 2010). But their sense of culture included the particularities and complexity of subcultures such as military culture or homeless culture that also need to be considered in dealing with FLE (Hays, 2007; Vitt, 2009). What seemed to motivate the interviewees’ culturally responsive approach to teaching was more of a desire to connect to learners’ life experiences with finances as related to the cultural context in which they found themselves and less about challenging structural power relations based on gender, race, or social class that are reflected in the financial world. For example, several referred to the disproportionate representation of payday lenders in communities of color and in poorer communities; hence, they would include consideration of the consequences of dealing with payday lenders in their teaching in such settings. However, unlike most who discuss culturally responsive education or critical pedagogy in adult education, these FL educators did not directly discuss power relations or systems of oppression and privilege. Nor did they offer a critique of capitalism or directly discuss power relations that relate to the structure of financial inequities to begin with (Buckland, 2010; Willis, 2008). From this standpoint, as Sandlin (2005) points out they perhaps are like many in consumer education circles who educate their constituency within the framework of institutional relations, rather than challenging the institution itself.
Third, this attention to the cultural context had distinct curricular and pedagogical implications. From a curricular perspective, these educators adjusted published materials, but they also developed their own, to accurately reflect their learners’ lives related to both social class and culture. As Olsen and Whitman (2012) note, curricular information in most published FL materials is generally not targeted specifically to communities of color. Thus, many of these educators would include issues in their curriculum that related to learners’ interests in attempting to be culturally responsive. Their emphasis on using stories featuring members of different cultural groups and other interactive pedagogical techniques are also rooted in beliefs of the importance of recognizing how learners’ attitudes are affected by emotions and shaped by sociocultural factors. It is through culturally relevant stories that provoke learners to reflect on their own lives, their financial history, factors that contributed to their present financial situation, what role their family history played in becoming financially distressed, and what ways exist for them to gain financial security. Furthermore, it is through stories that the emotions associated with finances, financial information, and their impact on everyday life are brought to life. To be sure, although the importance of attending to cultural issues in the curriculum and pedagogy has been discussed in general adult education circles in numerous educational contexts (Guy, 1999; Ntseane, 2011; Sealey-Ruiz, 2007) for a long time, there has only been limited attention to such issues in FL settings, and limited data-based studies attending to such issues in the FL literature.
In conclusion, the study offers some interesting findings in understanding how beliefs of financial educators shape practice, and new directions in culturally responsive attempts at FLE, that will hopefully lead to greater opportunities for those working with adult learners in community-based settings. By attending to the sociocultural context and to family scripts and emotions about money and by providing learners with contextual information that helps them retell their personal financial story, some learners move from a lack of knowledge to having new knowledge that leads to behavior change and transformed attitudes. But as Buckland (2010) implies, the financial system in North America is based in capitalism, and much of FLE is based in behavioral economics. It may be that over time, there will be FL educators who will engage learners in moving from changed behavior and attitudes to beginning to challenge the very financial system itself. But that is the subject of another, yet to be done, study in FLE. We encourage other researchers to draw on the findings of this one to undertake such a study.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared that there were no conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The authors disclosed receipt of financial support for the research discussed in this article, and that the study was funded completely by The National Endowment for Financial Education® (NEFE®). The National Endowment for Financial Education is a private nonprofit 501(c)(3) national foundation “dedicated to inspiring empowered financial decision making for individuals and families through every stage of life.” The coauthors of the article all worked on this project; financial support was received from NEFE for the fulfillment of the work of this project only.