Vocationalism in Accounting Education : A Critique

Currently, accounting higher education is plagued with many problems that, as Albrecht and Sack (2000, p. 1) warn, “will lead to the demise of accounting education”. Traditionally, the discussion on how to solve these problems has taken place between two extreme educational paradigms – the vocational and the liberal one. However, previous recommendations for a greater emphasis on the liberal paradigm in accounting education (e.g. Bedford et al., 1986; Accounting Education Change Commission, 1996 [1990–1995]) had partial success, because they have been misunderstood by accounting faculties. This paper argues that the current recommendations for reforms in accounting education (e.g. the Pathways Commission's (2012) calls) face the same risk of misunderstanding which in turn leads to mediocrity in their implementation.The central thesis of this paper is that revealing the largely discredited nature of vocationalism will help accounting faculties to understand why too single minded a focus on the vocational is flawed and this, in turn, will help for the proper understanding of the messages for reforms. For that reason, this article examines critically the vocational paradigm in accounting higher education. Four important conclusions emerge from this. First, the philosophical underpinnings of vocationalism are at odds with the intrinsic values of education. Second, vocationalism alienates accounting from academic traditions. Third, any overwhelming vocational focus does not correspond to the educational developments in the other learned professions. Fourth, vocationalism has only a slight potential to solve the challenges facing the profession and its education