ECONOMIC EDUCATION IN THE PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS OF ALABAMA

Because economic literacy is now considered to be important, not only by authorities on economics, but the general public as well, economic education has become critically important in the high schools. The purpose of this study was to gather date from teachers of economic concepts in selected Alabama high schools during the 1979-1980 school year in an attempt to determine the preparation of these teachers, the concepts they were teaching, and their attitudes toward economic education. This preparation, including experience, was examined and correlated with the concepts and attitudes toward teaching economics in an effort to determine whether they were related in a statistically significant manner.;Some of the findings and conclusions of the study were: (1) All Alabama schools surveyed teach at least the one-semester course in economics; some teach more; and economics concepts are included in many other courses. (2) Most of the teachers surveyed were female, but more than one-half of the economics teachers were male. (3) Overall, teachers in smaller schools tended to be better prepared in economics than teachers from larger schools: however, a larger percentage of teachers from larger schools had acquired more than 15 quarter hours in economics. Still, only two out of five teachers felt adequately prepared and men indicated greater confidence in their knowledge of economics than women. The most frequent recommendation was for more adequate preparation of teachers. (4) The teachers ranked economics first in importance among the social studies and fourth within the subjects in the secondary curriculum. (5) The teacher solicited recommendation for in-service/workshops and current textbooks and materials contrasted significantly with the fact that very few teachers have either attended the state workshops or use textbooks or supplementary materials in their classes. . . . (Author's abstract exceeds stipulated maximum length. Discontinued here with permission of school.) UMI.;A total of 60 schools was asked to participate in the study. Fifteen schools were selected from each size classification in the Alabama High School Athletic Association classification of schools. A research questionnaire form was used to collect the information from the teachers in social studies, business education, and home economics. A total of 93 responses was received and used as data.