Operationalising dialogic accounting education through praxis and social and environmental accounting: exploring student perspectives

Higher accounting education tends to be monologic and uphold a ‘hidden curriculum’ based on neoliberal and neoclassical economic assumptions that prioritise financial stakeholders’ concerns and profit maximisation. This informs what is regarded as teachable knowledge in accounting education, and how this is taught. Critical accounting researchers have urged educators/researchers to adopt dialogic pedagogical approaches to reimagine how accounting can facilitate democratic dialogue about the range of practices it covers; expose students to divergent socio-political perspectives on accountability; and promote critical reflection and transform their understandings of their lived realities. Our research is situated within the critical Social and Environmental Accounting (SEA) literature and the potential of a dialogic accounting pedagogy. Through student interviews and reflections from educators, we explore the design and implementation of a third-year accounting course containing a SEA component, and its potential for achieving the aspirations of dialogic pedagogy, and how this can be developed and implemented.