Financial Education and Social Justice: reflections within the scope of Mathematics Education

Abstract

Financial Education, initially debated in the 2000s through the actions of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, gained strength in Brazil with the National Financial Education Strategy and, more recently, with the inclusion of this topic in the National Common Curricular Base. Regarding this, ideas in the national and global context still agree with a Financial Education of investment, of the sole and exclusive responsibility of the individual for financial issues. Despite over 20 years of problematization around Financial Education, this topic lacks theories and indications that promote Financial Education with a critical, social, and democratic bias toward Social Justice. What Financial Education, in the context of Mathematics Education, allows us to provide Education for Social Justice? This is one of the questions we asked ourselves and, consequently, guides us in the theoretical reflections that we present in this article. In other words, based on the results of studies, readings, debates, and publications that we have carried out over years of research in Financial Education, we aim to theorize about Financial Education for Social Justice, based on national and international references on the topic. To this end, we divided this text into four main sections, which address a brief contextualization of Financial Education, especially its discussions in the Graduate Program in Mathematics Education at São Paulo State University; an overview of Financial Education in Brazil and around the world, and the ideas around School Financial Education; theoretical aspects of Education for Social Justice; and, what we understand to be Financial Education for Social Justice. We indicate Financial Education as a potential for Social Justice by encouraging people to take on active roles with empowerment, democracy, and criticality.