Rethinking The Pluralist Agenda in Economics Education*

Two overlapping yet distinct views of pluralism vie for the allegiance of economics educators: an 'intellectual diversity′ view in which the pluralist goal is to integrate competing paradigms into standard curricula, and a 'critical thinking′ view in which the aim is to cultivate students′ ability to reach reasoned conclusions in the face of analytical, empirical or normative uncertainties. This paper defends the latter view. Educators who aspire to achieve and expand the pluralistic outcomes specified in the QAA Economics Benchmarking Statement would be better served by pursuing the student-centred aim of intellectual freedom rather than the teacher-centred aim of paradigmatic diversity.