The economic and financial literacy of Italian school teachers: a first survey of future primary school teachers

Abstract

The National Strategy for Financial, Insurance and Social Security Education of 2017 recognized the
need to coordinate the many economic and financial literacy initiatives carried out in Italy and was
aimed primarily at the adult population in general. Little attention has been paid to teachers both in
terms of surveying their actual levels of economic literacy and in devising training on these aspects.
For this reason, a questionnaire has been drawn up and administered to students of the Master’s
degree in Primary Education at the University of Molise. From the results, it emerges that the future
teachers of this university do not have the knowledge and skills to adequately instruct younger
generations in economic culture and that action is needed to address the basic cognitive deficit and
to develop the methodological and teaching skills for the education of future economic citizens.