Browsing by Author "Schreck, Juri"

The set of financial skills considered essential for individuals has undergone significant changes from the era of bank-directed thrift education to the current financial education. The rapidly evolving society has highlighted the need to develop every member into a sufficiently competent financial practitioner. Schools play a significant role in promoting financial literacy. The financial literacy of Finnish youth has been studied and found to be at a good level, but the question remains whether it will be sufficient in the future. The aim of this research is to shed light on how primary school teacher students perceive the financial education pro-vided in schools and how they perceive themselves as future financial educators. This study adopts a qualitative approach and was conducted through semi-structured individual thematic interviews. Four primary school teacher students at different stages of their studies participated in the research. The interviews were conducted remotely. Data were analyzed using theory-guided content analysis. The primary school teacher students perceived the financial education provided in schools as desirable and important. In the discourse of the interviewees, financial education took on rather lofty meanings, often referring to the value foundation of education and societal objectives. Descriptions of their ideal financial education remained largely within the framework of the current guiding principles of teaching. The interviewed students were generally quite satisfied with the current implementation of financial education as a multidisciplinary whole. There was a hope that financial education would continue to address issues related to personal financial management in the future. The self-efficacy experiences expressed by the interviewees were unexpectedly positive. Significant factors promoting self-efficacy included, for example, creating training opportunities for financial education at various stages of career and providing real practice opportunities.