Consumer Education

Although people have been consuming goods and services in the marketplace for years, the terms consumer culture and consumer education only came into use at the beginning of the twentieth century. Transacting in the global marketplace of the twenty-first century is a complex, nuanced process necessitating special training and socialization processes, available through consumer education. Over the past fifty years, efforts to conceptualize consumer education have become more refined, progressive, and innovative. Starting with the seminal work of Rosella Bannister and Charles Monsma, conceptions of consumer education are traced up to 2009, drawing [Page 264]on work from Canada, the United States, and the European Union.

Bannister and Monsma tendered the most enduring understanding of consumer education, published in a monograph containing a classification system of 154 consumer education concepts. Through consumer education, people accumulate, in a progressive, empowering manner, the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors considered necessary for (a) managing resources, (b) engaging in rational consumption behavior, and (c) taking actions as citizens.

Using their model, conventional consumer education programs assumed there were three major market players, each with different roles and interests: consumers (including consumer organizations), businesses, and governments. It is assumed that businesses have the advantage over consumers, necessitating government rules and regulations to protect people in their consuming role. To ensure that the interests of consumers were respected, consumer educators planned curricula that taught skills and knowledge pertinent to (a) decision making; (b) resource management (financial planning, shopping for goods and services, and conserving); and, (c) participating in the marketplace. The latter included both (a) consumer protection, rights, laws, and assistance and (b) consumer advocacy and representation of consumers' interests relative to business. The intent of consumer education was to help people get the best value for their money by making reasoned purchase decisions, complaining if they did not get their money's worth, taking action on behalf of other consumers, and appreciating how the economy worked so they could function efficiently as consumer agents. Such educated consumers were considered to be “empowered” market players.

In the 1980s, three key consumer education initiatives began to shift the field's focus. First, the International Organization of Consumer Unions (IOCU, now called Consumers International, CI) created a charter for consumer action, comprising five consumer responsibilities. This educational tool augmented the prevailing focus on consumer rights. Second, hand-in-hand was IOCU's publication of Promoting Consumer Education in Schools (remaining one of today's gold standards). The boundaries of consumer education were pushed beyond the focus on interests and rights to include an understanding of the impact of consumption decisions on the lives of others and about how to act and behave conscientiously. Third, in 1985, the United Nations released its Resolution for Guidelines for Consumer Protection. It strongly advised consumer educators to include the environmental, social, and economic impacts of consumer choices and promote sustainable consumption patterns.

These three previous initiatives were precursors for another shift in consumer education, a move from consumer rights and privileges to socially and environmentally responsible consumption. A 1999 update of IOCU's Promoting Consumer Education in Schools included global citizenship, a concern for society at large, conscientious decision making, sustainability, solidarity with underprivileged members of society and nature, and a moral dimension. As well, a subtle shift was occurring in how consumer educators understood the term consumer empowerment. Earlier and current versions of consumer education assumed that consumers were empowered if they could use information and take advantage of the competitive market by being knowledgeable, confident, assertive, and self-reliant. With the right information, people could make the right purchase decisions, thereby driving competition, innovation, and choice in the market. Moving past this position, a 1999 U.K. initiative developed a Framework for the Development of Consumer Skills and Attitudes, predicated on the belief that consumer education should benefit society as a whole; instead of serving self-interest, it should serve societal and environmental interests. Now, an empowered consumer was someone who had found the inner power and agency to effect change in the marketplace for the betterment of others and the ecosystem.

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