Progressive Resources for Teaching Economics

Finding progressive resources for teaching introductory economics at the high school and early college levels can be difficult. The many pedagogically sophisticated and attractively packaged curriculum materials distributed by groups such as the National Council on Economic Education, the Foundation for Teaching Economics, and Junior Achievement reflect views that range from narrowly neoclassical to strictly right-wing—not surprising, given the funding of these efforts by corporations and conservative foundations. The fact that these groups helped design the Voluntary National Content Standards for high school economics means that simplistic neoclassical principles are becoming even more firmly entrenched in high school textbooks and standardized tests.

D&S has also run a number of articles about right-wing bias in economics teaching, including:

It's time for progressive economists to fight back.

The sampling of progressive economics teaching resources listed below is adapted from Introducing Economics: A Critical Guide for Teaching, a textbook and associated website by economists Mark Maier and Julie Nelson: "While we hope this information will be helpful to instructors, the list of materials available to counter the neoclassical onslaught is still woefully short. We enthusiastically welcome suggestions of further materials and, particularly, collaboration in efforts to organize, fund, create, and disseminate more 'real world' economics to tomorrow's leaders."

Please visit the Introducing Economics website. with any suggestions you have about how to expand this list, and we will pass them along to Mark and Julie.

Have a link you think we should include here? .