Pluralism, socioeconomics and de-coloniality

It is a well-known fact that the neoclassical school of thought dominates economic teaching. In order to provide alternatives, develop a pluralistic approach towards the teaching of economics and integrate the social and political dimensions of an economy, this paper offers some teaching tools incorporating such a pluralistic approach. The methodology is based on induction, through the experiences during the courses taught at secondary school and university degree levels. The study attempts to answer the following questions: How to start a course with a pluralistic approach in economics? What type of bibliography is relevant? What group practices are more stimulating? What complementary resources (e. g. films, videos, lectures etc.) can generate interest among students? Some of the main findings of this paper are: 1) it is fundamental to begin by surveying students’ interests; 2) it is better to resort to original authors (such as Smith, Ricardo, Marx, Marshall, Schumpeter, and Keynes) than to the textbooks; 3) programmed debates stimulate interest while suggesting alternative ways of thinking, such as role-play (different actors involved in a public policy, economists with different views on the same problem); 4) in addition to the written tests, students should be encouraged to produce knowledge through papers and essays on topics of their interest on a range of socioeconomic issues; 5) interviews and field visits broaden the perspective of students and show them that economic analysis is not simply circumscribed to academics; 6) movies are an excellent resource to address issues such as finance, crisis, labour market, international trade, core-periphery economies, among others; 7) socioeconomics, de-coloniality and pluralism are fundamental in order to provide a democratic approach.