Educating for Financial Literacy: A Case Study With a Sociocultural Lens

Abstract

This study explored the teaching and learning in an adult financial literacy education program aimed specifically at Latina single mothers to understand the influence of sociocultural factors in this setting. Informed by critical and Latina feminist sociocultural adult learning perspectives and the transtheoretical model of behavior change, special interest was paid to the pedagogical approaches and the role that ethnicity, gender, and the Latino culture played in the teaching and learning process. Data from educator and learner interviews, class observations, and document analysis revealed three main insights: (a) the program uses a holistic approach to financial education, emphasizing community leadership and creating a cultural community of support for the learners; (b) the pedagogy emphasizes both content and process, emphasizing learner needs to create this supportive community and deliver the financial content; and (c) the promotion of financial behavior change motivates learners to make changes. © 2012 American Association for Adult and Continuing Education.