https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1885-2220
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ABSTRACT
Several researchers have decried the marginalization of critical thought in accounting education programs. Initiatives have been taken to make students aware of standpoints other than the traditional, technocratic view of accounting, but of how students reacted to these, little is known. Inspired by the thinking of Paulo Freire and Stephen Brookfield, we investigate an initiative conducted with undergraduates who followed a mandatory course during the 2015–2016 academic year in which critical thinking, from the viewpoint of the critical pedagogy movement, was emphasized. The setting is the School of Accounting at Université Laval (Québec). The following question informed our case study: how do students experience the learning of accounting through critical pedagogy? Our analysis identifies three types of experiences in the learning of accounting through critical pedagogy: dedication (resonance with one's human aspirations), receptiveness (interest in broadening one's horizons), and discomfort (resistance to critical pedagogy on the ground of the field's performance imperatives). Our case study aims to contribute to the accounting education literature on critical thinking and critical pedagogy. Importantly, we found that dedication experiences often resonated with the belief that critical thinking (as articulated in the course) is marginal to the field of performance-based professional practice.
Acknowledgements
We thank students who participated in this study as well as the instructor for making this study possible. We benefited from the comments made by participants at the Emerging Scholar Colloquium preceding the 2018 Alternative Accounts Conference (Montréal, Canada). The first author gratefully acknowledges the scholarship provided by the Foundation of Québec Chartered Professional Accountants.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 The expression ‘CPA technical competencies’ is a strong indication of the importance the profession assigns to learning techniques during undergraduate studies. Excerpted from Québec CPA website, https://cpaquebec.ca/fr/etudiants-et-futurs-cpa/comment-devenir-cpa/prealables-universitaires/, consulted on July 18, 2016.
2 https://www.ulaval.ca/les-etudes/cours/repertoire/detailsCours/ctb-3109-seminaire-en-comptabilite.html, consulted on July 18, 2016; our translation from the original French.
3 Davies (Citation2015) provides a synthesis of various approaches in critical thinking which are categorized through four dimensions: cognitive, propensity, criticality, and critical pedagogy. In our case study, we address the critical pedagogy dimension.
4 In Freire's view, in a ‘banking’ concept of education, ‘the scope of action allowed to the students extends only as far as receiving, filing, and storing the deposits’ (Freire, Citation2005, p. 72). In a context of socialization, the banking concept of education is comparable to the process that Anderson-Gough et al. (Citation1998) call functionalist, i.e. a fixed, objective process in which students passively absorb the values and characteristics presented to them.
5 The second author is the first author's dissertation supervisor; the seminar's instructor is not involved in the first author's dissertation committee.
6 Of the 36 classes scheduled (for a total of 108 hours), two were cancelled. Also, the first author was unable to attend two classes.
7 Four of the 15 students did not participate in the first round of interviews because they agreed to be interviewed only later in the term.
8 We decided it was irrelevant, for research purposes, to analyze these interviews in detail since students generally had little or no idea of the content and structure of the seminar at that point. The focus of our study really emerged during the semester.
9 https://www.ulaval.ca/les-etudes/cours/repertoire/detailsCours/ctb-3109-seminaire-en-comptabilite.html, consulted on July 18, 2016, our translation from the original French.
10 All observation and interview extracts are translations from the original French.
11 In addition to leading a discussion surrounding one research article, the assessments throughout the term consisted of reading summaries, midterm and final examinations (containing situation-based questions), and a short individual essay based on changes in the student's conceptual maps (produced at beginning and end of term) pertaining to their perception of the role of accounting and accountants in organizations and society. See Appendix I for an overview of the 12 seminar classes (including evaluation procedures).
12 In the French version of Freire (Citation2005), the ultimate ‘outcome’ of critical pedagogy is ‘prise de conscience’, which may be translated by ‘realization’. Drawing on the Canadian Oxford Dictionary (2001), realization may be considered as ‘becoming fully aware of’ or ‘understanding clearly’. We use the term ‘realization’ to refer to the moment when students think deeply of a given situation and express their own viewpoint on the matter.
13 While mindful of the pitfall of overstressing the emancipatory aspect of Freire's approach (since our participants come from a different social and cultural context than the people Freire worked with), his pedagogy allowed us to account for those students who felt called upon by critical thinking and who were often seen as marginal within the student group.
14 In an interview, the same student could exhibit a wide range of reactions to critical pedagogy. For example, in our notes Student 2 is often classified as having demonstrated discomfort. However, there are some instances where Student 2 appears to be receptive, as suggested by this excerpt:
I think it's important because, as I said, it may not directly influence my practice, but it will influence my understanding of the practice. It will allow me to really put things into perspective. It's going to give an importance to what I’m doing that is greater than I thought it could be. It's rewarding on a personal level, but it's also rewarding for the profession and for the practice as a whole. It seems that it means even more to be an accountant now. (Student 2)
15 It is possible that a student's experience may have been influenced by grading, as suggested by O’Donovan (Citation2017). One reviewer put it this way and is worth mentioning: ‘I worry that discomforted expressions about the course objectives and processes are mediated by frustrations or fear about the grading outcomes’. Our initial interviews indicate that many students were worried about their grades – including students showing experience of dedication. Ultimately, though, ‘grade’ did not emerge as a significant theme from the analysis of our second-wave interviews and we believe that is because students may have come to realize, throughout the semester, that the instructor's evaluations did not relate to their stance but rather to the depth of their justification.
16 https://www.ulaval.ca/les-etudes/cours/repertoire/detailsCours/ctb-3109-seminaire-en-comptabilite.html, consulted on July 18, 2016, our translation from the original French.
17 One reviewer made a meaningful comment which we believe is worth reproducing:
It seems to me that students’ reluctance to engage in a critical way with the accounting knowledge and the accounting profession is consistent with their view of a profession, not as a place where they will make a long career, but only as a transitory occupation to accumulate social and cultural capital (Daoust, Citation2020). In other words, I wonder how it is possible to raise students’ critical awareness of a profession they do not really want to be part of. This represents a very significant challenge for accounting educators.
18 CPA (Citation2020). The Chartered Professional Accountant competency map: Understanding the competencies a candidate must demonstrate to become a CPA, p. 1.