Executive Vice President, CTF Education Group
Anna Adasiewicz has 30 years of global experience in leadership and management uniquely combining experience and knowledge from financial services and K-12 education sectors. After earning a master’s degree in economics from the University of Lodz, Poland, she qualified as a chartered accountant and worked in management roles for PwC, General Electric, Standard Bank, then ESF in London, Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo. In 2020 Anna was appointed an Executive Vice President in CTF Education Group (part of New World Development) serving DSC International School, Victoria Educational Organisation and Benenden Bilingual School Guangzhou.
Anna is passionate about preparing young people to be future ready through financial education and literacy. In 2019 she started teaching economics, business, and ethics and philosophy with Postgraduate Certificate in Education and master’s degree in education from the University of Sunderland (UK). In 2023 she earned a Certificate in School Management and Leadership from Harvard Graduate School of Education and Harvard Business School Online, and in 2024 a very prestigious National Professional Qualification in Executive Leadership from the Department for Education (UK). In 2024 Anna embarked on a PhD study researching perceptions and attitudes of teachers and parents on financial literacy in early years educational settings.
The global COVID-19 pandemic and following financial turbulence and energy crisis prompted an increased focus on the urgent need for financial literacy education in national curricula. The OECD spearheaded the trend by promoting guidelines following the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and introducing PISA Financial Literacy Assessments for 15-year-old students. This presentation offers critical insights into why financial literacy is essential, whose interests it serves and how financial literacy curricula are constructed. Critical pedagogy lens helps examine definitions, purposes (both social and political), policy responses and teacher support for delivering financial literacy education in K-12 schools. The presentation reveals problematic aspects of teaching financial literacy including inadequate teaching resources and teachers' PD, lack of student agency, and the consumerist and conflicted outsourcing of financial literacy curricula and creation of teaching resources to for-profit financial organisations. The Ontario Financial Literacy Scope and Sequence of Expectations is an excellent example of a sophisticated, world-class, integrated curriculum. However, dominant neoliberal policies and marketisation of education influence heavily the implementation of such curricula. Educators suggest more investment and alignment among key stakeholders is necessary in co-creating and embedding financial literacy into K-12 curricula.
Key words: financial literacy, critical pedagogy, consumerism, hidden curriculum, teachers’ professional development