Student imaginings,cognitive dissonance and critical thinking |
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| Authors: | Nihel Chabrak Russell Craig |
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| Institution: | 1. UAEU, Faculty of Business and Economics, Accounting Department, United Arab Emirates;2. College of Business and Economics, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand;1. Department of Accounting & Business Law, Baylor University, One Bear Place, Waco, TX 76798-8002, USA;2. School of Business, James Cook University, P.O. Box 6811, Cairns Mail Centre, Cairns, QLD 4870, Australia;1. Université Paris Dauphine, DRM, Place du Mal de Lattre de Tassigny, 75116 Cedex 16, Paris, France;2. ESCP Europe, CPO Department, 79 avenue de la République, 75543 Cedex 11, Paris, France;1. School of Accounting and Commercial Law, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand;2. Dixon School of Accounting, University of Central Florida Orlando, Fl, United States;3. School of Management, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland;1. Department of Communication, University of Maryland-College Park, 2124 Skinner Building, College Park, MD, 20742, United States;2. School of Arts & Media, University of New South Wales, 231Q Robert Webster, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia |
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| Abstract: | 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. |
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