Student imaginings, cognitive dissonance and critical thinking

• Published in: Critical perspectives on accounting 2013-03, Vol.24 (2), p.91-104
• Main Authors: Chabrak, Nihel, Craig, Russell
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accounting; Accounting education; Accounting theory; Business ethics; Business failures; Capitalism; Capitalist economy; Cognitive dissonance; College students; Critical; Critical thinking; Critique; Crítica; Curricula; Economic systems; Educación contable; Enseignement de la comptabilité; Ethics; General Finance; Higher education; Quantitative Finance; Students; Éthique; Ética; 会计教育; 批判性; 道德伦理
• ISSN: 1045-2354; 1095-9955
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cpa.2011.07.008

In this paper, we urge accounting educators to encourage imaginings and critical thinking in students. We reflect on the results of an assignment in which French accounting students were encouraged to assess the collapse of Enron. The submitted assignments attest to the originality and richness of non-conformist stories reported by some students. However, they also revealed strong instances of cognitive dissonance that we contend was fostered by the contradictions some students detected between the rhetoric and the reality of capitalism; and by the perpetuation of socially bereft capitalist values in accounting curricula. The assignment manifested student discontent with the current pervading economic system and its moral and ethical precepts. We identify the ways by which students responded to their cognitive dissonance. We propose some pedagogic and curriculum initiatives to improve accounting education. These initiatives call for stronger efforts to connect accounting topics with the social world in order to demystify the alleged naturalness of the capitalist system; for students to be encouraged to imagine other cultures and discourses; and for students to challenge any prevailing ideology.