The social science principle in socio-economic didactics

The didactic of socio-economic education conceives the subject as social science. Together with the principle of learner orientation, social science has a long tradition at the heart of socio-economic education. This differentiates socio-economic education from orthodox economic education, which derives its identity solely from the discipline of economics. This paper lays out the foundations of the social science principle and its justifications in terms of educational theory, subject didactics, and academic reference. Rather than splitting economic education into separate mono-disciplinary subjects, this paper outlines a social science-oriented approach to education on socio-economic issues that focuses teaching and learning on key commonalities of the social science disciplines.