While adolescents in modern society are exposed to a variety of financial decisions within a complex financial environment, the financial literacy required to make these decisions rationally remains insufficient. According to the OECD (2022), although...
While adolescents in modern society are exposed to a variety of financial decisions within a complex financial environment, the financial literacy required to make these decisions rationally remains insufficient. According to the OECD (2022), although financial education in schools is most frequently addressed within the mathematics curriculum, existing education has faced limitations, often being confined to mere connections with general economic education or utilized solely as a tool for mathematical calculation. Accordingly, this study recognized the necessity of re-examining school curricula from the perspective of 'Financial Numeracy,' which integrates financial and mathematical literacy. The study aimed to systematically compare and analyze the manifestations of financial numeracy reflected in national mathematics curricula across all school levels, including elementary, middle, and high schools. The core research question of this study is: "How is financial numeracy reflected in the documents of national mathematics curricula?" To address this, the mathematics curriculum documents of South Korea (specifically the 2022 Revised Mathematics Curriculum), the United States, Canada (British Columbia), the United Kingdom, and Australia were selected as subjects of study. For the analysis, the conceptual framework of the three dimensions of financial numeracy proposed by Cavalcante (2025) and Savard & Cavalcante (2021)—the Contextual, Conceptual, and Systemic Dimensions—along with Adamson and Morris's (2014) framework for comparative curriculum studies, were utilized to examine the financial numeracy reflected in each country's curriculum. The results revealed distinct differences in how financial numeracy is reflected across countries. The United Kingdom and Australia exhibited a high proportion of the 'Contextual Dimension,' utilizing currency and financial situations as contexts for mathematical learning. Notably, these countries showed a tendency to actively employ money as a mathematical tool starting from the lower grades. In contrast, South Korea showed the highest proportion of the 'Conceptual Dimension' at 77%; however, this was predominantly concentrated in high school career elective subjects such as Economic Mathematics and Mathematics for Vocation. While financial numeracy is addressed in a limited manner within South Korea's common curriculum, Canada's British Columbia demonstrated a balanced developmental trajectory that gradually expands from the contextual dimension to the conceptual and systemic dimensions as grade levels progress. In conclusion, while South Korea's mathematics curriculum demonstrates strengths in a conceptual approach that presents financial concepts as learning objectives, structural limitations were identified in systematically connecting financial numeracy within the common curriculum at the elementary and middle school levels. Given that the concentration of content in high school elective subjects may lead to disparities in learning opportunities based on student choices, this study suggests that future curriculum revisions should structurally integrate financial numeracy within the common curriculum by linking it with topics such as proportion, functions, and probability. Furthermore, there is a need to reinforce education in the 'Systemic Dimension' that considers social contexts beyond simple calculation.