Conference Program

This contribution presents the theoretical framework and findings of the Italian national research project (PRIN 2022KTB2KX), "Financial Thinking for Reflective Citizenship". At its core, the project is based on a Financial Thinking model (Marchetti et al., 2020) of disciplinary literacy (McConachie & Petrosky, 2010) essential for active and reflective citizenship in the 21st century. By integrating cognitive development, socio-emotional skills, and critical reading, this approach aims to empower children—regardless of gender or socio-economic background—to become informed participants in a democratic society.

The necessity for early intervention is driven by evidence that financial literacy gaps, including those related to gender and socio-economic status, are often observable by adolescence (Agenzia Nazionale per i Giovani, 2023). By introducing economic learning in primary school (ages 8–10), the project seeks to establish a foundation of equity before these disparities solidify.

The methodology centers on an integrated model that includes two primary components:

1. Financial Thinking for Children: This conversational training uses peer interaction to develop "perspective-taking" and "mentalization". By discussing stories like The Merchant’s Bank, students explore economic concepts through the lens of fairness, altruism, and prosocial decision-making. This focus on the "relational" side of economy is particularly vital for creating an inclusive environment where students of all genders can see themselves as economic agents.
2. Financial Knowledge Acquisition Competence: The project utilizes specialized materials to teach students how to navigate the "informational complexity" of the modern world. By explicitly teaching economic vocabulary and critical reading strategies, the program ensures that students from varied backgrounds gain the linguistic tools necessary to participate in socio-economic inquiry.

The results from the project indicate that active participation in these dialogic and literacy-based interventions significantly improves students' ability to transfer economic knowledge to broader social themes. Specifically, the data highlights that strong text comprehension is a major predictor of financial learning, suggesting that "reading for democracy" is inseparable from "learning for democracy".

Ultimately, this paper argues that rethinking equity in economic learning requires moving away from modular, math-centric curricula. By embedding financial education within the broader framework of civic education and social cognition, we can provide all children with the foundational financial thinking and literacy competence — a prerequisite for exercising citizenship rights and achieving financial well-being in a complex global economy.