Economic Theorising, Discursive Analysis and Pluralism in the Classroom: Evidence from Postgraduate Teaching in a French University

Abstract

Can students examine the discursive strategies employed by economists so that the former think critically about the underlying theoretical forces described by the latter? Are economic processes ontologically dependent on the narratives used by economists to account for real phenomena? In this article, we draw both on Wheat's mapping techniques to homogenise theoretical economic discourse and on Pilkington's attempt to combine economics with language for specific purposes. We show that informed and fruitful discussions in the classroom necessitate the use of a new median pluralistic discourse that is yet to be elaborated upon, both by university and secondary school teachers. Finally, in order to illustrate our argumentation, we use a short case-study based on a course entitled 'Financial, Economic and Global Issues', taught to a public of non-native speakers of English, studying for a Masters degree in banking and finance at the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis in France.