Pedagogical guidance for South African consumer studies education

Abstract

Consumer Studies, offered as a subject in South African secondary schools, has the potential to contribute significantly to the development of entrepreneurial knowledge and skills in learners.  Despite the subject being complex and unique, inadequate pedagogical guidance exists for teachers in Consumer Studies.  The benchmarking of the Consumer Studies curriculum with respective international curricula indicated that ample pedagogical guidance exists for comparable or related subjects in other countries.  An in-depth review of international literature was undertaken to determine what pedagogical direction might be gleaned from related subjects internationally for South African Consumer Studies education.  Several aspects were identified which were used to construct broad pedagogical guidelines for Consumer Studies education regarding fundamental principles, the approach to teaching, and preferred teaching-learning strategies which should be used in the subject.  It is recommended that pedagogical guidance be made available to teachers in the subject, and that further research be conducted to refine pedagogy for Consumer Studies education.