Inserção da educação financeira em escolas públicas municipais de ensino fundamental de Santa Maria - RS

Abstract

Financial education is a relevant subject for Brazilian society, especially because Brazil ranks among the worst countries globally in terms of financial literacy. Therefore, it is important to examine how this topic has been incorporated into schools in order to understand how to effectively address financial education in the school environment, aiming for a more conscious society in terms of financial resource management and ultimately achieving competency in achieving goals. In light of this, the main objective of this dissertation is to identify how financial education is being implemented in municipal public elementary schools in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul. To fulfill this purpose, the following methodological procedures were employed: regarding the objectives, it is a descriptive research; concerning the problem approach, it is a quantitative study; in terms of typology, a survey was conducted; as for the method used to approach the problem, an inductive method was employed; and finally, in the data review, statistical methods were employed. To do so, a questionnaire was administered to the participating school principals. Among the respondents, only 33% reported that financial education is integrated into the curriculum in an interdisciplinary manner. The majority of schools that do not currently include financial education in their curricula expressed an interest in incorporating it. Although there is available material for financial education, many teachers struggle to integrate it into their subjects due to a lack of direct affinity with the topic. Thus, the results obtained from this study can serve as a source of knowledge for the municipal government to develop ways to incentivize schools to incorporate financial education into their curricula, as the majority of schools currently do not do so, despite their interest in the subject.