{"id":7594,"date":"2019-09-20T07:27:37","date_gmt":"2019-09-20T07:27:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themint.kinsta.cloud\/?p=7594"},"modified":"2019-09-20T07:27:37","modified_gmt":"2019-09-20T07:27:37","slug":"development-economics-the-loaded-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themintmagazine.com\/development-economics-the-loaded-question\/","title":{"rendered":"Development Economics: The Loaded Question"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><strong>Discussing global income inequality in classrooms full of rich kids leads to pencil cases at dawn. <span class=\"s1\"><b>Nigella Vigoroso-Heck<\/b><\/span> tells a tale of development economics.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">In 2018 Oxfam horrified us all with their finding that 1% of the world\u2019s population had more than 50% of the world\u2019s wealth. Global income inequality had clearly spun out of control.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Buried further down in their research report, but much less publicised, was the inconvenient fact that anyone with assets of more than \u00a3250,000 was in that 1%.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">Here are some facts about the city in which I teach:\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul style=\"list-style-type: square;\">\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul style=\"list-style-type: square;\">\n<li class=\"p5\">average house prices in the local area are close to \u00a3500,000;<\/li>\n<li class=\"p5\">tuition fees at my school cost close to \u00a320,000 (with boarding, it\u2019s more like \u00a330,000); and<\/li>\n<li class=\"p5\">a pint of beer across the road costs over a fiver.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cTeachers must tread through case-studies like minefields, hoping their example for state corruption isn\u2019t the birthplace of someone\u2019s mum.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p4\">By any measure you choose, the students I teach are rich.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>They are in the top 1%.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>And teaching Development Economics (Dev Econ) to the 1% is an interesting game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">In my experience, Dev Econ \u2013 for better or worse \u2013 is the one area on the course guaranteed to generate opinionated debate and genuine passion.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Some students, of course, are always slightly miffed when we\u2019re not looking at a global superpower or a multi-billion pound company but most of them are keenly aware that it represents one of the most important economic issues of our time.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s6\">The first few Dev Econ lessons consider the measures of Economic Development.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Cue lots of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ted.com\/talks\/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen?language=en\"><span class=\"s7\">Hans Rosling videos<\/span><\/a> and discussions about Sustainable Development Goals.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Then, we consider the causes of underdevelopment.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Cue case-studies and more videos (<a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/4557989\"><span class=\"s7\">this is my favourite<\/span><\/a>).<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>And finally, we look at the \u201csolutions\u201d.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>This is where things really do get very interesting and students\u2019 true colours will quickly emerge.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">The nature of UK schools these days is that there are different ethnicities represented in every classroom.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Teachers must tread through case-studies like minefields, hoping their example for state corruption isn\u2019t the birthplace of someone\u2019s mum.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>I\u2019ve had classes too in which some students, who had been brought up in very intolerant cultures, bulldozed right through the minefield: \u201cthe problem in that country is that they\u2019re all lazy and stupid\u201d. That remark earnt Mr Intolerant a long chat with the Principal.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cThey\u2019ve even thrown pencil cases at each other when debating the idea of debt relief for Haiti.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s8\">It can be an emotional topic as well.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>I\u2019ve had students cry at data on Sierra Leone and they\u2019ve even thrown pencil cases at each other when debating the idea of debt relief for Haiti. From a teacher\u2019s perspective, there\u2019s a tough balancing act to keep up: how much do you want to make this about human suffering and how much do we want to stick to economic concepts?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>I tend to go for the latter but, back in April this year, I had the following conversation with one of my brightest students.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">Me: \u201cSo, what is the biggest problem with unemployment?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">Student: \u201cThat you\u2019re producing inside the production possibility frontier.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s11\">When your student says the biggest problem with unemployment is that the economy is producing inside the production possibility frontier, you know you\u2019ve gone way too far down the route of separating economics from real-life.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>It was a watershed moment for me.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>It ended up being the beginning of an existential crisis for her.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cThe best thing about \u2028Dev Econ for me though is that I get to hammer the neoliberals in Washington for a month.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s14\">Increasingly, I have become much more aware of the behaviour of my (numerous) Chinese students during Dev Econ too.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s impossible to have a sensible conversation about emerging economies in 2019 without looking at the role of China in the global economy.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/9f5736d8-14e1-11e9-a581-4ff78404524e\"><span class=\"s15\">FT<\/span><\/a>, for example, 10,000 Chinese companies currently operate in Africa and 12% of all African industrial output is handled by Chinese firms<sup>1<\/sup>.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>I am left to wonder: what do my Chinese students make of that?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Do they see it as exploitation or as a legitimate means of growing the domestic economy?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s4\">Last year I had a group of Chinese teachers observe my lesson on foreign aid.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>At the end of it, one observer came up to me and told me how original and creative my lesson was<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>\u2026 because I had actually considered the economic benefits of foreign aid from the perspective of the developing country.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Apparently, the equivalent Chinese econ spec only really focusses on the impact on China.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s4\">The best thing about Dev Econ for me though is that I get to hammer the neoliberals in Washington for a month.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cLook at these guys\u201d, I say, \u201cclaiming that they\u2019ll solve the world\u2019s development economic problems with their one-size-fits-all approach\u201d.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>There are almost no success stories I can use about the World Bank (but an abundance of catastrophic failures) and it\u2019s an ideal opportunity to debunk some economic myths like the \u201ctrickle-down effect\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">Overall, Dev Econ ends up being quite a polarising topic in the A level course.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Students either love it or hate it. Likewise, some teachers leave it \u2018til last and barely get past the definitions, others might spend a term on it and build in development video competitions to their scheme of work.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>In that sense, it is quite unlike any other topic on the specification.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Discussing global income inequality in classrooms full of rich kids leads to pencil cases at dawn. Nigella Vigoroso-Heck tells a tale of development economics. In 2018 Oxfam horrified us all &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[110,798,970,983,133,99,162,941],"class_list":["post-7594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","tag-confessions","tag-development","tag-development-economics","tag-development-economics-the-loaded-question","tag-education","tag-inequality","tag-nigella-vigoroso-heck","tag-sept-2019"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themintmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themintmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themintmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themintmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themintmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.themintmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themintmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themintmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themintmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themintmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}