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ABSTRACTThis research examines the parallels between children's
understanding about economic reality and the nature of
economic information that is available in their
environments. Previous studies» conducted mostly within a
Piagetian's framework» found that children had a restricted
range of accounts about economic reality and this was
attributed by cognitive developmental theorists to the
children’s immature or infantile cognitive structures.
This thesis argues that children acquire understanding about
economic inequality through social transmission. Piaget has
largely neglected the role of social-cultural factors in
children's cognitive development» while Vygotsky emphasises
the social origins of cognition. One set of potential
sources of economic information for children is fairy tales
and reading books. It was hypothesised that economic
information communicated in children's literature was
limited and simplified, and that different cultures were
likely to present different economic ideas. Older and high
SES children were predicted to be more stereotyped in their
reasoning about economic issues because of their presumed
greater exposure to» and familiarity with this literature.
Three cross-cultural studies were carried out in Britain
and Indonesia. In the first study, children aged between 5 to 11 years were interviewed about their understanding of
economic inequality. There was evidence that children's
restricted range of accounts of economic reality was a
reflection of society’s scripts. Analysis of children’s
fairy tales and reading books in the second study revealed
that limited and stereotyped information about economic
reality was presented in this literature. Parallels between
children*s reasoning about economic reality and the economic
information communicated in their books were indicated in
the third study.
The implications of the research findings were discussed in
terms of each culture’s idiosyncrasies and in relation to
Piaget's cognitive developmental theory as well as
Vygotsky* s sociohistorical approach."
