Critical Perspectives on Accounting 15 (2004) 557563

Alas poor critical accounting, we knew him, Karl

Matthew V. Tilling , Carol A. Tilt
School of Commerce, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide SA 5001, Australia

Abstract
This essay represents a reflection on some of the authors experiences and is an attempt to articulate
the attitudes of many students, accountants and academics those that involved in critical accounting
face daily. It is neither an attempt to cover all aspects of critical education, nor a complete exposition
of the dominant managerialist paradigm. Rather, it is an attempt to engender debate amongst the
participants of this conference, and to encourage critical academics to think about the considerable
challenge they face in countering such attitudes. Thus, this intentionally provocative essay begins to
explore these issues through the lens of a specific threat to critical accounting at an undergraduate
level. In particular, changes within the university and the student population in Australia would appear
to render it increasingly difficult to introduce and teach it effectively as a subject.
2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Critical accounting theory; Education; Credentialism

1. Eulogy
Hereat this final hour, in this quiet placeAcademics have come to bid farewell to what
was, for some of them, their brightest hopeextinguished now, and gone from us forever.
It was born in recognition of this imperfect, unscientific world, it struggled for the other,
the dispossessed, the disadvantaged and it fought to gain some measure of equity and
fairness for allits home of homes was unashamedly the University, where its heart was,
and where its people areand it is, therefore, most fitting that we meet once againin the
Universityto share these last moments remembering . . . Farewell Critical Accounting.
The future of critical accounting in our academic syllabus is at best uncertain and at
worst foregone. Changes within the university and the student population in Australia would
appear to render it increasingly difficult to introduce and teach it effectively as a subject.

Corresponding author. Tel.: +61-8201-2013; fax: +61-8201-2644.

E-mail address: Matthew.Tilling@flinders.edu.au (M.V. Tilling).

1045-2354/$ see front matter 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S1045-2354(03)00046-7

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M.V. Tilling, C.A. Tilt / Critical Perspectives on Accounting 15 (2004) 557563

The paper begins to explore these issues of change in general through the lens of a specific
threat to critical accounting at an undergraduate level.

2. What was and might have been

Critical accounting stems from a long history of critical disciplines, all of which question the hegemony of the dominant social view; understand that society is forever fluid and
acknowledge that any pretensions of stability in social dynamics are merely illusionary.
Most often linked back (rightly but superficially) to Marx but with a richer philosophical heritage (through Plato, Hegel, Kant, etc.) and a much more developed one as well
(Horkheimer, Adorno, Foucault, Habermas, etc.). Gouldner (1980) argues that critical theory, as we know it, has arisen from a schism in Marxism. A split that has given rise to two
conceptions of Marxs philosophy, one conceived as critique, the other science, grown
up around the nuclear tension between voluntarism and determinism, between freedom and
necessity (Gouldner, 1980, p. 34). Gouldner (1980, p. 60) acknowledges that these two
conceptualisations share a core vision of emancipation but that the way in which this is
to be achieved varies for critical theory, the aim is to preserve human culture and certain
transcendental values, to reinvigorate human morality and restore men (sic) to a life in an
integral community while moving on from the limiting nineteenth century preoccupation
with the economics of materialism.
Critical theory has been used to develop, explore and support a range of perspectives, in
just the accounting literature: Gender (Ciancanelli et al., 1990); Political Economy (Cooper
and Sheerer, 1984); Reality & Morality (Francis, 1990, 1994; Hines, 1988); Colonialism
(Tinker, 1980) and Indigenous People (Neu, 2000). This list is not meant to be exhaustive nor
representative. It indicates the varied nature of critical research, what links these disparate
perspectives is that they are overtly anti-positivist, and (argue) that science and its strategic
ideologies of technicism and efficiency have subverted more ethical forms of decision
making (Welch, 1996, p. xv).
Critical accounting theory has been distinguished from Mainstream (Positive) and the
Alternative (Interpretive) theories (for a detailed analysis of underlying Epistemologies
and Ontologies see Chua, 1986). In broad terms, critical accounting theory has a two-fold
aspect, in keeping with general critical theory in its application to accounting. The first,
a contextualisation of the practice of accounting within a wider domain (society, history
and organisations; Lodh and Gaffikin, 1997), While it is acknowledged that a great deal
is known about the technical aspects of accounting, it is argued that little is understood
about either accountings social roots or the interconnection and interrelationship between
the social and the technical (Laughlin, 1987, p. 479). Part of this contextualisation is the
recognition that accounting is not a science, but a human endeavour (Arrington and Puxty,
1991; Francis, 1990).
The second aspect of critical accounting theory is a call to action, to participate in an
actual transformation of the system. It is the view that the present is not satisfactory, that
reality could be better than it is (Laughlin, 1987, p. 482). It is this final aspect that so clearly
distinguishes critical accounting research from traditional positivist research (Tinker, 1988).
Though no-one pretends that seeking out and attaining this better world through accounting

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559

will be easy in practice, particularly, as it is so deeply embedded in the prevailing system

that the potential for change is highly constrained other than is dictated, or allowed, by the
system (Dillard, 1991). Efforts have been made however; see, for example, Tinker et al.
(1991) and Neu et al. (2001).
Given the nature of critical accounting it is almost a surprise that it does not seem to have
appealed to the next generation of accountants. This, despite the fact that it acknowledges
their idealism, their striving for a better world than that which their parents had inhabited.
Critical accounting in the tertiary syllabus should have provided an opportunity for students
to develop their ability to think critically about the system in which they would one day
work and to question the way that they contributed to an ethical and just society. And surely,
this is the role of accounting if it is to hold itself out as a profession.
Yet just as accounting has started to make some final steps on its long journey out of the
book-keeper role the jumping of one of the last hurdles may be thwarted by changes within
the university and its students.

3. A new era for tertiary education

The nature of tertiary education in Australia has changed. This change is not, in many
ways, to be lamented. The ivory tower has, to some degree, crumbled or perhaps more
accurately the populace have been allowed into the galleries. Even within the 10-year period,
from 1989 to 1999, total student numbers in universities grew by around 55% (Department
of Education, Training and Youth Affairs, 2000). This is to be applauded, and the purpose of
this essay is not to wail and gnash teeth about the loss of liberal education, that artefact of
elitism (Tilling, 2002). The start of the new university era was met with much excitement.
People came to university because they wanted to be there, to experience the new found
opportunity to gain an education. Things have changed. University is now viewed by few
students as an opportunity to expand ones horizons, instead it is little more than a necessary
step to claw ones way into some middling career. For example, the gate has been thrown
wide open in France, allowing participation rates in the high 50% range, and a degree is
now a requirement for employment as a post-person (The Australian, 2002).
Over the last 10 years the nature of students at the university has significantly changed.
Although the statistics show some small drop in the number enrolled full-time in Australian
Universities, the anecdotal evidence points to a situation where increasing numbers of
students treat the university as a part-time activity. An activity to be fitted around work.
An activity that is deemed necessary for advancement, not for an education. The change to
a student as customer focus by universities, promoted by Australian Government reform
of the higher education sector (Bennett, 1998), appears to be a world-wide phenomenon
(Davies and Thomas, 2002) and reinforces the change in students attitudes. In business
schools credentialism rules, and few and far between are the students who are genuinely
interested in an education because knowledge is independently valuable.
The education system in Australia was changed dramatically after the release of the
White Paper in 1988 by John Dawkins, the then Labour Minister for education (Dawkins,
1988). The ensuing structural changes removed the three tier system that existed until that
time. Prior to the change the tiers were made up of the Technical and Further Education

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(TAFE) colleges that concentrated on trade skills and apprenticeship training; the Colleges
of Advanced Education (CAE) and Institutes of Higher Education/Technology, which dealt
mainly with training for the quasi-professions such as nursing, teaching and accounting; and
the universities, which concentrated on the more traditional areas of medicine, law, science
and arts, although incorporated some wider business education including some accounting.
Dawkins changes meant the removal of the middle tier (CAEs and Institutes) and converting these to universities. While the changes had numerous effects, one of the significance
to this paper was the sudden increase in competition between the new and old universities for students.1 In response, many traditional universities found that they had to increase
their business offerings and lower their admission requirements.
In conjunction with these changes there have also been continual cuts to university funding by Federal Governments. The increasing need for alternative funding and the increased
competition for students has meant that there has been a significant shift in the focus of the
university from a belief in the provision of pedagogically based, high quality education, to a
customer focused provision of the type of education demanded by the increased number of
studentsthat with a purely vocational emphasis. The government argued that the changes
were necessary, and that education for all who qualified, knowledge for its own sake, and
a protected, diversified, autonomous higher education system were not longer affordable,
efficient or practical (DeAngelis, 1996, p. 4). Numerous commentators lament the product of the so-called reforms. As a place of learning, the university struggles to maintain its
responsibilities for scholarship, critical inquiry and the maintenance of cultural tradition
(McIntyre, 2001).

4. A new breed of student

The changes in the education system in Australia have contributed significantly to rethink,
by students, about university study. While in the past, many of those who wished to gain
a professional qualification would have attended CAEs or Institutes, they now all attend
universities. Anecdotal evidence points to the fact that students do not want critical theory
(or even any theory), they want practical skills that they will use on the job. Many just want
the degree as quickly and simply as possible, as a large proportion do not gain employment
in the area of their degree but use the credential to gain employment elsewhere.
Such claims are supported by the changing demographics of students enrolled in business
degrees at universities. Many students find employment before or during their studies and
as such view their study as a choresomething that must be completed to remain in their
job, gain promotion or change employers. Part of this situation can also be attributed to the
changing attitude of the Australian Government, in providing funding to support students
in tertiary education. This attitude appears similar to the earlier US experience, as outlined
by Collins (1979, p. 18), who comments that
Business schools are increasingly used as a recruitment channel for managers, but their
level of instruction is not generally high. Most business schools prepare their students for
1 For those who are interested Australia now broadly defines its university into three tiers, the old Sandstone
universities, the newer Gum Tree universities, and the institutes which changed to universities redbrick.

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561

Table 1
Commerce degrees (% of part-time total enrolments)a
1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

27.5

22.5

20

19

23

24

27.5

Data from one Australian university used as representative information.

Table 2
Commerce degrees (% of part-time commencing enrolments)a
1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

11

13

10

13

14

21

23.5

Data from one Australian university used as representative information.

a particular first job rather than teaching skills that may be useful throughout the career.
Moreover, the particular training taken often turns out to be irrelevant, as most graduates
find jobs outside their own specialty.
The Australian trend certainly appears indicative of the international situation. More recently in the USA, the Higher Education Research Institute (2001) found that students in
their freshman year were less interested in becoming an authority in their field than ever before. The desire for affluence has increased at the expense of any desire for status or authority.
As mentioned earlier, there has been some increase in the number of students doing
part-time study (see Tables 1 and 2), however, anecdotally, numbers of students have indicated that they work on a full-time basis and study full-time as well. A survey of a first level
accounting topic offered in 2001 (170 students), 16% of students were enrolled part-time
while working full-time, and a further 14% were studying full-time and working a minimum
of one full day per week. A second level topic in accounting in the same year (135 students)
showed 19% of students were studying part-time (Tables 1 and 2).

5. Credentialism over education

The end of the millennium brought to a head a debate that has been around for some
time, the tension between student as client and student as customer (Sharrock, 2000). This
loss of sight that academics are part of a profession, not members of a service industry, is
evidence of this changing expectation of students.
Interestingly, in 1979, Collins in The Credential Society wrote about similar problems
in the American education system. His answer was a radical concept called credential
abolitionism (Collins, 1979, p. 197). Such a system would remove the currency value of
any professional degree by making formal credential requirements for employment illegal.
He provides a powerful justification for his position by quoting evidence that formal tertiary
education does not provide any skills that could not be gain on the job, and that access to
credentials is discriminatory. This seems particularly true of the accounting profession.
Such a radical solution can be justified on the same grounds 20 years later, but many would
say this is simply a pipe dream.

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Another interesting question is whether we are in fact justified in deciding for others
what their education should be. If the majority of students want vocational education we
are not failing to meet the societys needs by continuing to include traditional university
ideals? Politicians face the same dilemma in a representative democracydo they do what
they consider is right or follow the majority view on certain moral issues such as abortion, human rights, etc? One argument against following the majority in every situation is
that it results in pandering to mediocrity. But can we make the same argument for education, where students making the demands are supposedly the more intelligent section of
society?

6. Reports of my death may have been exaggerated

The changing nature of the university and our students does not bode well for the future
of critical accounting. When entire non-vocational disciplines are being removed from
university curricula (McIntyre, 2001), can we really expect critical accounting to survive?
The game has changed. Just as we were finding our feet, moving accounting out of the
trades into the professions, it is dragged back by a society content to accept that this is
the best of all possible worlds (Tinker, 1988). Critical accounting is not comfortable. It is
not certain. It is not easy in the sense that the answers are not straight forward. Critical
accounting has no immediate value in a world so focused on tangible return for input. An
employer is not going to be happy to set a task for our students to do this, and have a
discussion about the underlying implications and assumptions of doing so.
And because employers and professional bodies do not value this critical accounting
perspective (despite whatever lip service they may pay to the activity), students do not value
it. And because students do not value it, and they are our clients who must be satisfied, the
schools do not value it. And, alas, critical accounting may be dead. Struck down, perhaps
not in its prime, but just as it was finding its feet, and offering the potential to make a
difference in the way information is presented and in the way individuals view the role of
accountants in society.
If we are to breathe life back into critical accounting, its proponents must face some
difficult challenges:
Can we show society why critical accounting is important even in degrees that provide a
credential for a particular vocation? And if so, how?
Can we justify the teaching of concepts that our customers (society?) do not appear to
want?
And thus, the hour of departure has arrived, and we go our waysCritical Accounting
to die and Credentialism to live? Which is better, God only knows.

Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Ms Geeta Sing for her helpful comment on an earlier version
of this paper during the Critical Accounting in the Academy Online Conference, February

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563

2002. The authors also acknowledge the inspiration for the opening Eulogy from Ossie
Davis in his moving farewell to Malcolm X, no disrespect is intended.

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