Expanding the Horizons of Accounting Education: Incorporating Social and Critical Perspectives

Abstract

This paper examines a case of accounting education change in the context of increased interest in ethical, social, and environmental accountability, presenting a reflexive case study of a new university accounting subject incorporating social and critical perspectives. Foundational pedagogical principles and key aspects of curriculum are outlined. The pedagogy draws on the integration of humanistic and formative education (principally based on Gramscian and Freirean approaches) and deep and elaborative learning. Two key aspects of curriculum and pedagogy are analysed. First, a curriculum based on a broad conception of accounting and accountability as power-laden social processes, drawing on a range of research literature. Second, the adoption of an authentic, supportive, and collegial team teaching approach. Students' feedback relating to identified issues is presented. The paper contributes to the renewal of the social and ethical worth of accounting education, concluding that deep accounting educational change encompasses both the content and practice of classroom activity and changes in the self-consciousness of staff and students.

Keywords:

• Social accounting
• critical accounting
• team teaching
• social construction
• humanistic education
• deep learning

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the feedback received from participants at the 6th Australasian CSEAR conference in Wellington, New Zealand; the Second Innovation in Accounting and Corporate Governance Education Conference in Hobart, Australia; the 19th International Congress on Social and Environmental Accounting Research in St Andrews, UK; and from the journal's reviewers.

Notes

The force of this imperative remains, even though such calls for responsible business and accounting in the public interest may be based on very narrow conceptions of the public interest, and operate more at the rhetorical rather than the practical level (Davids and Boyce, 2005; Boyce, 2008; Dellaportas and Davenport, 2008).

Macquarie University has one of the largest university accounting and finance departments in Australia. When the new elective subject was in its development phase in 2005, the Department taught 3,365 equivalent full-time undergraduate and postgraduate students studying in several different degrees, including programs recognised as satisfying the tertiary education entry qualifications for the major Australian professional accounting bodies. At the time the new subject was first offered in 2006, the Department's programmes were taught and managed by 55 full-time staff and over 100 part-time, casual, and adjunct staff. The four authors were all employed at Macquarie University at the time, and they formed the teaching team for the subject.

The Department's experience showed that, although a large number of accounting graduates seek employment in the profession, a significant proportion either do not go on to undertake professional qualification programs and/or do not go on to employment in the accounting industry.

Unfortunately, an apparent bureaucratic mishap led to the exclusion of this subject from published programmes. This resulted in a relatively small group of 25 students electing to take the subject (a larger number of students were enrolled initially, but 25 students kept their enrolments current past the ‘census date’ at which they become liable for student fees, contributions, and charges (four weeks into the semester). Most of the enrolled students had generally poor academic records reflected in a mean Grade Point Average of just 1.14 (a Grade Point Average of 2.0 represents a clear pass average). The teaching team was not deterred by the academic history of the students, instead viewing this as a challenge to ensure that the subject content was relevant to these students and presented in such a way as to provide them with opportunities that they may not have had previously.

The Principles for Responsible Management Education were developed under the auspices of the United Nations Global Compact, which ostensibly seeks to ‘align business operations and strategies everywhere with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption’ (UN Global Compact 2008a, p. 2). The Principles are stated to be ‘a global call to transform curricula, research and teaching methodologies on the basis of universally recognized values of sustainability, social responsibility and good corporate citizenship’ (UN Global Compact 2008b, p. 2). We accept as valid many of the criticisms of the Global Compact, particularly its perpetuation of problematic market doctrines (c.f. Merino, 2006), its contentment with aspirational statements, its inherent voluntarism (these factors contrast the Global Compact with comparable initiatives that deal with corporate rights rather than responsibilities, such as World Trade Association rules and the aborted Multilateral Agreement on Investment), and the failure to produce significant (non-rhetorical) outcomes (see Bakan, 2004; Bailey, Harte and Sugden, 2000; Utting, 2007).

Note that assessment strategies were considered as part of the overall learning and teaching in the subject, and were constructively aligned to the curricular elements discussed in this paper (see Lucas, 2001). Detailed consideration of specific assessment strategies is beyond the scope of this paper.

Thus it does matter what you teach (c.f. Thomson and Bebbington, 2004).

Some students' responses encompassed both areas.

Ferguson, Collison, Power and Stevenson (2005) found that the interests of shareholders and management dominated accounting texts. Heavy reliance on prescribed textbooks constrains the conception of appropriate accounting knowledge and diminishes the educational space for critical analysis of extant theory and practice (Brown and Guilding, 1993a). Ferguson et al. (2005, p. 42) concluded that ‘accounting academics must resist the single perspective presented in textbooks … and provide alternative perspectives’ in order to develop critical thinkers and active independent learners.

Since this approach worked well, at the end of the semester a decision was taken to increase class contact time for the next offering of the subject to four (2 × 2) hours per week, providing extra time for discussion, debate, and explanation.