Teaching ethics in accounting and the ethics of accounting teaching: educating for immorality and a possible case for social and environmental accounting education

Abstract

A number of the ethical issues associated with university accounting education are explored, The argument has three principal themes. Although there is much to admire about current accounting practice there is also considerable evidence of ethical and intellectual failure among accounting practitioners. At least some responsibility for these failures can be laid at the door of accounting education. There is evidence that accounting education fails to develop students' intellectual and, relatedly, ethical maturity. This, it can be argued, may be seen as a moral failure on the part of accounting educators. This, it can be argued, may be seen as a moral failure on the part of accounting educators. The content of much of what currently passes for core accounting knowledge has characterstics which can be associated with both superficial learning strategies and ethically immature moral postions. Thus, it may be that ‘current accounting knowledge’ implicity reinforces accounting education. There are many possible solutions to this problem. One possible, and partial, solution may lie with social and environmental accountng, which challenges much of the traditional approach to accounting education in universities, offers a vehicle within which many of the implicit assumptions of accounting and accounting education can be explored and provides a potential opportunity to enhance the ethical and ntellectual development of accounting students.