Discussing "Teaching Economics After the Crash" and a great blog post!

Few economics educators will have missed the December 2014 documentary by Aditya Chakrabortty on Radio 4 titled Teaching Economics after the Crash. It has likely been discussed in many an A level economics classroom, particularly with students eager to know more about their potential economics degrees...I know a couple of my classes watched it with interest and had many questions about their future economics degrees afterwards... Unfortunately, few asked "Is what the documentary said actually true?"

The documentary did lead to some fascinating discussions with both students and colleagues and whilst all found it enjoyable viewing, it was not particularly clear to enough students that it was a rather unfair and one-sided representation, and a portrayal that most economics degree courses do not typically deserve.

I felt that its unbalanced nature could not only have negative consequences in terms of the selections some students made in terms of their future study of economics, but it was also rather unfair in the way it misrepresented the truth about the nature of economics undergraduate degrees in general. It's general message was essentially that economics degrees aren't good enough at helping students understand the economies of the world (and typically the financial crisis) as they aren't well applied and they (the economics degrees) are delivering more of a right-wing, neo-classical doctrine as opposed to a balanced, applied and useful skill-set.

Now, rather than producing my own rebuttal, this article: Thoughts on “Teaching Economics After the Crash” by Karl Whelan does a wonderful and a far better job than I ever could. It provides an insight into the mind of a well-balanced economist and educator who can see the validity in some of the points raised and recognises that improvements can (and should) be made, and also tackles the unsupported, anecdotal critiques head on.

Not only does Karl Whelan carefully address the misconceptions but he also gives a window in to what students are likely to experience during their undergraduate economics degree, which is why we were discussing the documentary in the first place!

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