Open Collections

Abstract

Conceptualizations of financial literacy are ubiquitous and have received considerable attention in the literature (Arthur, 2012a; Bay et al., 2014; Pinto & Coulson, 2011) and mainstream media (Hughes, 2025; Steffenhagen, 2011). Attempts to define these concepts reveal the absence of one singular moment or event with the universal authority to validate one as be(com)ing financially literate. Establishing meaning(s) about financial literacy is contextual yet they are often falsely presented as value neutral. As a parent and chartered professional accountant teaching in higher education, I was curious to know how the British Columbia Ministry of Education conceptualized financial literacy in its K-12 education policies during two education reform initiatives spanning 1988 to 2018. Using Carol Bacchi’s (2016) ‘What’s the Problem Represented to Be?’ methodology opened space(s) to critically analyze how the British Columbia Ministry of Education constituted the financial literacy problem within its education policy discourses and curriculum as a policy instrument. Interrogating the Ministerial interpretations and/or representations within the policy texts employed to frame the financial literacy problem facilitated the unravelling of assumptions that undergirded this problem definition and its proposed solutions. This study found that the conceptualization of financial literacy intersected within three curricular learning areas, namely, applied skills, career and personal planning, and mathematics where courses containing financial literacy were compulsory for graduation and prioritized by way of a royal proclamation affirming its significant importance in K-12 education. Influenced by the OECD sponsored Program for International Student Assessment, students’ performance in financial literacy was measured to identify remedial approaches that addressed the perceived deficit thinking assumptions that students lacked financial (cap)abilities, qualities, and/or skills. Recurring notions of financial literacy centred on homogeneous, skills-based, and standardized applications that brought into question the social-cultural silences embedded in the curriculum. Without consideration of the multidimensional constructs of financial literacy, ones shaped by an individual’s ideological background/s, identity/ies, and belief/s, the curriculum diminishes the pluralistic voices of young learners. Gaining a deeper understanding of the varying conceptualizations of financial literacy and how they may conflict and/or contradict with those in the curriculum, brings forth opportunities to enrich student learning about financial literacy.