The dialectic of accounting education: from role identity to ego identity

Within the critical accounting literature interest in accounting education appears to be growing (see, for example, Amernic, 1996; Chua, 1996; Davis & Sherman, (1996); Dillard & Tinker, 1996; Galhofer & Haslam, 1996; Neimark, 1996; Paisey & Paisey, 1996; Reiter, 1996). However, as yet the discussion does not appear to be grounded within the well-established critical education literature. Little critical analysis has been provided of the specific ways in which power may operate through accounting education, or the forms that a more critical education might take; or of the theoretical problematic of the dialectical tension that exists between both possibilities (that is between emancipation and domination). Given the significant and perhaps even primary role that social theorists have ascribed to education in the reproduction of social structures, and the maintenance of forms of subordination, this seems surprising (see, for example, Althusser, 1971). This paper draws on some well-established critical education theory in order firstly to explore the hegemonic operation of power within accounting education and secondly to use these insights as a basis for developing some thoughts on what a more critical accounting education might look like in practice.