Economic Phenomena and Multidisciplinary Perspectives of Young People with and without Special Educational Needs

Economic phenomena such as “money” or “price” can be distinguished and studied along disciplinary lines, for example as economics or sociology. But such distinctions cannot be maintained in real life: For example “money” has economic functions, but acquires sociological aspects in interaction with others (such as a pay increase communicating appreciation of work). If the learners’ perspective is regarded as the starting point for teaching and learning processes, teachers in social science subjects face the twin challenge of identifying and/or anticipating their students’ ideas while didactically simplifying complex social questions without losing their practical relevance to the lifeworld. The contribution explores the perspectives of adolescents with and without special needs. The learners’ ideas are also analysed in relation to selected facets such as the inclusion of unobservable aspects or the connotations of the dimensions of conception. On this basis conclusions are drawn for socio-economic education and subject-didactic research.