Pragmatic Postmodernism and Engagement through the Culture of Continuous Creativity
Saved in:
| Title: | Pragmatic Postmodernism and Engagement through the Culture of Continuous Creativity |
|---|---|
| Language: | English |
| Authors: | Miley, Frances (ORCID |
| Source: | Accounting Education. 2019 28(2):172-194. |
| Availability: | Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals |
| Peer Reviewed: | Y |
| Page Count: | 23 |
| Publication Date: | 2019 |
| Document Type: | Journal Articles Reports - Research |
| Education Level: | Higher Education Postsecondary Education |
| Descriptors: | Accounting, Business Administration Education, College Students, Postmodernism, Learner Engagement, Instructional Innovation, Teaching Methods, Student Attitudes, World Views, Creativity, Individualized Instruction |
| DOI: | 10.1080/09639284.2018.1471727 |
| ISSN: | 0963-9284 |
| Abstract: | In order to engage students who have difficulty with the dominant world-view presented by accounting, or who have negative views of accounting, a different approach to teaching is required. We developed the concept of "pragmatic postmodernism" in the teaching of accounting to merge a postmodern teaching philosophy with the constraints and realities of teaching accounting. It represents an attempt to synthesise the individual learning needs of contemporary students who have difficulty accepting the dominant world-view of accounting with the constraints inherent in the resourcing, architecture and systems surrounding the teaching of accounting. The purpose of this research is to describe the thinking behind a pragmatic postmodern approach to the teaching of accounting. We provide examples of teaching approaches consistent with pragmatic postmodernism, that we have used successfully in our teaching to engage students who might otherwise be disengaged in their learning because of their rejection of the dominant world-view of accounting. In keeping with the philosophical underpinnings of postmodernism, we do not offer a magical panacea but an approach to thinking about teaching that seeks to prioritise the individual learning experience while remaining cognisant of the many constraints on the teaching of accounting. |
| Abstractor: | As Provided |
| Number of References: | 79 |
| Entry Date: | 2019 |
| Accession Number: | EJ1207610 |
| Database: | ERIC |
|
Full text is not displayed to guests.
Login for full access.
|
|
| FullText | Links: – Type: pdflink Url: https://content.ebscohost.com/cds/retrieve?content=AQICAHj0k_4E0hTGH8RJwT4gCJyBsGNe_WN95AvKlDbXJGqwxwGoYybIu2WuHuVGgVim_uQNAAAA4zCB4AYJKoZIhvcNAQcGoIHSMIHPAgEAMIHJBgkqhkiG9w0BBwEwHgYJYIZIAWUDBAEuMBEEDN0Wy87rh8Yd2fwJ2wIBEICBm48Z5EUatS2960FlSQ2yReBleJ1t0ZjUzhzWhPnU9i1LpBO_CEzh9vITh0RrMxoXKGLjpq6lOiAAEgnuScTkNtvtN8lbcotdx3J3KXmzs_VAiwR2jtkCt7xq-P9upt2n6DDR3KBs_CA003BBoTApUhZO2RpnZ_Ie-aljY5e7jlzgYepEbnui1dK46p1qUwsTuiGn0sdWRl9BlM9f Text: Availability: 1 Value: <anid>AN0135500747;5cb01apr.19;2019Mar25.10:30;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0135500747-1">Pragmatic postmodernism and engagement through the culture of continuous creativity </title> <p>In order to engage students who have difficulty with the dominant world-view presented by accounting, or who have negative views of accounting, a different approach to teaching is required. We developed the concept of pragmatic postmodernism in the teaching of accounting to merge a postmodern teaching philosophy with the constraints and realities of teaching accounting. It represents an attempt to synthesise the individual learning needs of contemporary students who have difficulty accepting the dominant world-view of accounting with the constraints inherent in the resourcing, architecture and systems surrounding the teaching of accounting. The purpose of this research is to describe the thinking behind a pragmatic postmodern approach to the teaching of accounting. We provide examples of teaching approaches consistent with pragmatic postmodernism, that we have used successfully in our teaching to engage students who might otherwise be disengaged in their learning because of their rejection of the dominant world-view of accounting. In keeping with the philosophical underpinnings of postmodernism, we do not offer a magical panacea but an approach to thinking about teaching that seeks to prioritise the individual learning experience while remaining cognisant of the many constraints on the teaching of accounting.</p> <p>Keywords: Creativity; engagement; postmodern education; pragmatic postmodernism; student engagement; teaching innovation</p> <hd id="AN0135500747-2">Introduction</hd> <p></p> <p>At the heart of higher education is the three-way transaction between the student, his teacher and the material being studied. Although student performance - measured in terms of degree results - and student wastage have been examined, <emph>how</emph> the student learns has not ... (t)he research tradition in the field of higher education has touched on its central triangle but has barely begun to enter it. (Entwistle &amp; Ramsden, 1983, p. 2)</p> <p>The question that prompted this paper is whether it is possible to reconcile the research that indicates the value of postmodern approaches to teaching and the constraints of teaching accounting. This question is of importance because all teaching operates within resource and spatial constraints, necessitating teaching choices. If teaching choices are made in the light of the scholarship of teaching and learning, the growing body of literature supporting postmodern teaching methods becomes a stumbling block because it assumes a level of individualised teaching and learning that is problematic in a discipline such as accounting where technical precision is important. This research demonstrates how the constraints inherent in teaching accounting can be reconciled with the postmodern teaching approaches.</p> <p>Although the impact of postmodernity on teaching and learning has been a recurring theme of the education literature (Aviram &amp; Yonah, 2004; McCormack &amp; Pamphilon, 2004; Parker, 1997; Rømer, 2003; Usher &amp; Edwards, 1994; Usher, Bryant, &amp; Johnston, 2004), it has barely touched the literature on accounting education (James, 2008). The paucity of literature on postmodernity and accounting education (Craig &amp; Amernic, 2002; McPhail, 1999, 2004) suggests either that postmodernity has not featured in the contemporary teaching of accounting (Parker, 1997) or that current accounting research does not reflect contemporary accounting education. If postmodern teaching approaches have not been adopted in accounting, then accounting has fallen behind what has been happening elsewhere in tertiary education. If postmodern approaches to teaching are being used in accounting, then the value of contemporary accounting education must be questioned because it no longer reflects developments occurring in the classroom. Either way, accounting is out of step with other disciplines (Aviram &amp; Yonah, 2004; Boje, 2001; Poynor, 2003; Slattery, 2012; Soja, 1989).</p> <p>Postmodernism moves beyond the constraints of modernism. A modernist education seeks to unify society through training students in universal values and universities built in the modernist tradition have learning spaces that construct the teacher as authoritative transmitter of unbiased knowledge. An example of modernist construction is the traditional tiered lecture theatre. By contrast, postmodern teaching helps students construct personal values and develop knowledge with teachers as co-constructors, and it recognises that empowerment requires people to choose their own learning goals (Usher &amp; Edwards, 1994). In particular, postmodernity seeks to individualise the student learning experience and it recognises that a plurality of viewpoints may have equal validity (Delanty, 2003).</p> <p>There is a lack of understanding in accounting education about what is meant by postmodern teaching (James, 2008). Postmodern teaching is defined by particularity that identifies individual student characteristics, learning goals and learning needs rather than seeking to impose uniformity of thought, curriculum, knowledge or practice. It seeks <emph>inter alia</emph> to give autonomy to students so they are empowered to make decisions about their own learning (Usher et al., 2004). Postmodernity is not simply about encouraging students to be responsible learners. It is about students selecting what and how they learn. This raises a conundrum: how can students take charge of their learning when they do not know what they do not know? It also raises assessment issues: how can the performance of a group of students be assessed and compared if they have learnt different things?</p> <p>These questions are valid and in a discipline area such as accounting, where knowledge includes the acquisition of certain skills and competences required for admission to a professional accounting body, seem insurmountable. This research discusses how we introduced a modified version of postmodernism into the accounting classroom that acknowledged and accepted the realities of teaching accounting but attempted to capture the ethos of postmodern teaching.</p> <p>We adopted our quasi-postmodern approach to teaching for three reasons. First, we recognised the importance of individualising the learning experience. Second, we sought a richer understanding of our students and how they learnt. Third, we were concerned that an increasing percentage of our students rejected the dominant world-view posited by accounting and were becoming disenchanted by their study of accounting and cynical towards accounting. Rather than seeing their disenchantment with accounting as the impetus for changing the accounting profession from within, these students saw their accounting studies as a stop-gap until they decided on a more meaningful career path. This was revealed in a pre-course survey in which students were asked their view of accounting and how their studies meshed with their longer-term career aspirations. It was our desire to engage disenchanted students led us inexorably towards a postmodern approach to teaching: postmodern teaching appealed to us because of its emphasis on the individual learning experience although conversely it was that emphasis which made us the most fearful because, when we commenced our journey into postmodernity, it seemed the hardest thing to achieve in an accounting degree programme.</p> <p>Accounting educators who were taught in a modernist environment, and teach in one, are likely to replicate the style of modernist teaching they found most effective as students (Giroux, Lankshear, McLaren, &amp; Peters, 1996; Usher et al., 2004), including the use of accounting textbooks designed along traditional, modernist lines (Goldstone, 2001): their teaching approach will be limited by their past experience (Usher et al., 2004). Postmodern teaching challenges educators to re-think all they have learnt about teaching from extant literature and their own teaching experience. It requires acceptance that no aspect of teaching is static. For accounting academics, it is perhaps closest in thinking to zero-based budgeting: in the same way that zero-based budgeting requires all budget programmes to be re-examined each year with no assumptions that the past will suit the future, so it is with postmodern teaching. Modernist approaches seek to gain understanding of student learning through empirical study of student responses to teaching methods, assessment and learning design. By their research focus on empiricism, there is an implicit assumption underlying modernist teaching that the best approach to teaching can be found empirically then replicated with other cohorts of students. If this assumption does not hold, it means the majority of accounting research is irrelevant because empirical findings are not generalizable. By contrast, a postmodern perspective recognises that empiricism fails to capture fully the triangulated learning experience of the three-way transaction between student, teacher and the material being studied. Thus, a fundamental difference between modernist and postmodern approached to teaching is that modernism views student learning as a static and measurable event whereas postmodernism views student learning as a mobile dynamic (Marshall, 2013). There is comfort in modernist teaching approaches because the boundaries are clearly defined. Postmodernist teaching can feel like teaching without a safety net.</p> <p>Our first attempts at postmodern teaching involved attempting to develop an individualised approach for teaching each student. This put us on a collision course with the 'immovable objects' of universities, which were the constraints of resources, architecture, and systems (Poynor, 2003). All university teaching is built around constraints of resources, architecture, and systems. For instance, the number of hours of staff time per course and the number of weeks in a semester are resource constraints that do not allow for unusual sequencing of learning time, the architecture of lecture theatres and tutorial rooms impose a particular style of teaching and learning, and the permitted maximum number of assessment items and the mandated length of examinations were systems constraints. Moreover, the large number of students enrolled in our accounting courses made it impractical to personalise the learning experience of each student, and offer a full range of learning activities to each student, and it was not possible within the time allotted to classes to ensure all viewpoints were aired and respected equally. Attempts at postmodern flexibility were also thwarted by inflexible university rules about assessment, including a requirement that all students sat identical examinations and externally imposed 'acceptable' course means, pass and fail rates, that artificially forced marks into a bell curve.</p> <p>Despite the many factors thwarting our adoption of postmodern accounting education, it was important to us that we could move our teaching in a postmodernist direction because we were frustrated that modernist teaching approaches were failing a large proportion of students. We do not refer to failure to pass a course of study but failure to engage students fully in their learning.</p> <p>Despite our unpromising start in the adoption of postmodern teaching approaches, we persevered because the introduction of postmodern teaching provided a way to bring teaching developments in other disciplines into accounting (Usher et al., 2004) and we believed it was important to reflect societal shifts to postmodernity in our teaching (Parker, 1997; Usher &amp; Edwards, 1994). Also, a postmodern approach was consistent with our personal concerns about the increased shift to corporatisation in higher education that has reconstituted students as clients and focused on cost minimisation. The corporatisation and commodification of accounting education has long been recognised in the extant literature (Dillard &amp; Tinker, 1996; Tinker &amp; Puxty, 1995) but these warnings do not seem to have led to change.</p> <p>Our response to concerns with, and the realities of, accounting education was to develop a concept we term <emph>pragmatic postmodernism</emph> which sought to retain the desirable features of postmodernism but locate it within the constraints of university resources, architecture and systems. That may make it a compromise position but also, it is a recognition that postmodern education in modernist institutions remains an ideal that is unlikely to be currently achievable with the resource, architecture and systems constraints within which accounting is taught. Pragmatic postmodernism is not a fully postmodern reconstruction of accounting education but a movement towards the postmodern ideal in accounting education. It draws upon features of postmodernism in its design, but modifies those features that are inconsistent with the constraints of modernist universities. First, it recognises the value of a constructivist model of education that encourages students to construct their own knowledge (Powell &amp; Kalina, 2009; Steffe &amp; Gale, 1995), particularly if this can be achieved collaboratively (Wenger, 2000), but it also recognises that constructivism is a <emph>grande narrative</emph>, or ideological view, that may inhibit the use of equally valid alternative approaches (Lyotard, 1984). Second, it recognises that curriculum design is constrained because in many countries, it is regulated by professional accounting accreditation requirements or the need for university degree programmes to gain exemptions from professional examinations for their students. Third, the role of accounting education in replicating the next generation of proto-capitalists is not questioned. This is a loaded debate with political overtones and hence, beyond the scope of this research. Fourth, it acknowledges that assessment options in accounting are constrained by university and professional requirements such as the need for invigilated exams.</p> <p>Our approach of pragmatic postmodernism was used with online learners. While we recognise that distance education comes with its own set of technological and pedagogical limitations (Henri &amp; Kaye, 1993), it overcame the spatial limitations of modernist university classrooms. The contribution of our research is the development of <emph>pragmatic postmodernism</emph>, an approach to teaching accounting that reconciles the philosophy of postmodern teaching with the realities that constrain tertiary teaching in accounting, and the illustrative examples we provide to facilitate the use of this teaching approach.</p> <p>In the following two sections, we describe the characteristics of postmodern education that scaffolded our thinking, focusing on how postmodernist approaches to teaching have the potential to increase student engagement in learning, and we provide an explanation of the culture of continuous creativity that is required for postmodern education. This is followed by a description of our approach to developing a course using the principles of pragmatic postmodernism, then a discussion of those principles, including the challenges we encountered. Although our use of the term 'course' refers to a semester-long module of study in a specific area. The area we were teaching was introductory financial accounting. We conclude with the benefits of pragmatic postmodernism and a brief summary of how we envisage both bedding-down and developing this approach.</p> <hd id="AN0135500747-3">Postmodern education</hd> <p>Choice is central to postmodern education (Slattery, 2012) because postmodern education is underpinned by an assumption that each student is unique, with different learning needs, and must be treated individually (Marshall, 2013). Choice encompasses both what the teacher does and what the student does, so teachers require autonomy to determine appropriate teaching methods for each cohort of students and students must be provided with a range of learning and assessment materials to allow them to choose those which suit their preferred approach to learning and desired learning objectives (Usher et al., 2004). There are assumptions implicit in these statements: that teachers are able to determine, and respond to, the individuality of students, that students are able to determine their own learning objectives and select appropriate materials from any range of options that might be offered, and that the content to be taught lends itself to teaching strategies for enhancing student engagement (Conrad &amp; Donaldson, 2011; Oliver &amp; Goerke, 2007; Scanlan &amp; Feinberg, 2000). Student engagement has been a recurring theme in accounting literature; this literature has been largely prompted by the high level of disengagement among accounting students (Adler &amp; Milne, 1997; Carnaghan &amp; Webb, 2007; Dallimore, Hertenstein, &amp; Platt, 2010).</p> <p>Many factors may explain student disengagement. In an attempt to gauge the likely level of engagement of our students, they were invited to complete an anonymous survey with open-ended questions pertaining to their attitudes towards accounting and accountants, their experience with accounting and accountants, and any other information they wished to share about their attitudes towards the study of accounting. From their responses, we anticipated that engaging our students could be an issue. The pre-course surveys indicated that most of the students were unenthusiastic about studying accounting, were expecting to suffer rather than enjoy the coming semester, had negative perceptions about accounting and little respect for accountants. The only positive to come from reading the survey responses was reassurance that we could only improve the negative views of the students because it did not seem possible that they could get any worse.</p> <p>Our student group was distinguished by three features. First, it was a cohort of 240 postgraduate students in their first year of study in accounting. Second, the students were studying part-time while employed full-time in the public sector, in middle to senior management positions. Third, the pre-course survey indicated that all students had prior workplace experience of accounting that was invariably negative: students described accountants as bean-counters, cost-cutters or narrow-minded people who obstructed attempts to fund important government projects. The survey proved enlightening because it set a student attitudinal benchmark and that would be a challenge, apart from revealing a level of antagonism towards accounting that did not bode well for the coming semester. We were not teaching students who were willing to buy into our world-view of accounting so we needed to approach them in a non-traditional way.</p> <p>To engage students fully in their learning, various factors for success must coincide. Identifying these factors can be difficult. Prior research indicates that we must develop teaching approaches that are appropriate to deliver particular types of learning (Franzoni &amp; Assar, 2009; Howieson, 2003), teach using facilities and technology appropriate to the type of teaching (Dickey, 2005; Herrington, Oliver, &amp; Reeves, 2003), and match our teaching approach to an individual student's preferred style of learning at that time (Bonwell &amp; Sutherland, 1996; Entwistle, McCune, &amp; Walker, 2001) but there is also the grey area of what the student does, or does not do, and its impact on learning (Biggs, 1999). Each of these factors is problematic and the research on learning styles, in particular, has been widely criticised (Curry, 1990). There are many competing frameworks that have been presented as definitive categorisations of student learning styles (Baker, Simon, &amp; Bazeli, 1986; de Bello, 1990) yet extant research is in disagreement about whether learning styles can be readily identified, whether learning styles are static, and whether simplification of the student learning process to a series of learning style categories is ether possible or helpful (Curry, 1990). The pragmatic postmodern response to this confusion of literature is to suggest that in accounting, there has been a failure to establish teaching programmes that allow student success factors to coincide, or that success factors may have coincided momentarily but not throughout an entire programme of teaching, because students have individual learning needs that are unique, complex and ever-changing, and this mismatch leads to student disengagement, but this does not mean that we should reject all attempts to manage a large cohort of students and set some standard parameters. Teaching in accounting is often a finely tuned balancing act, where student need must be set against both the constraints of resources, architecture and systems, and teacher sanity. Pragmatic postmodernism recognises that 'one size fits all' is a flawed modernist philosophy, but it opts for 'one size fits most' when individual tailoring is not possible. Pragmatic postmodernism is our attempt to manage failure as we define it, which is rooted in disengagement though, as true postmodernists, we recognise that our approach is not the only possible one.</p> <hd id="AN0135500747-4">Constructing a culture of continuous creativity</hd> <p>Pragmatic postmodernism recognises that no one set of teaching, learning and assessment techniques can engage all students. Further, it recognises that just because a set of teaching, learning and assessment techniques works with one cohort of students, that is no basis for expecting that set to work with any other cohort of students. Students are different, their learning needs are different, the social learning space they create is different, subject matter can be interpreted differently by different students, their prior experiences are different and their career aspirations are different so a cookie-cutter approach to teaching is unlikely to work.</p> <p>Faced with this challenge, it would be easy to descend into a nihilistic view of education; what is the point of worrying about teaching if there are no criteria by which to judge good teaching? We contend that this conclusion is flawed. Instead, we argue that scholarship of teaching is more important under a postmodern approach than a modernist one since modernism assumes a 'best approach' to teaching can be found but postmodernism assumes an ongoing quest in a non-static teaching environment. In postmodern teaching, the focus is not on what works but how and why something works, or does not work, and the scholarship of teaching can enhance understanding of this. Under a postmodern approach, appropriate teaching approaches cannot be easily determined by quantified surveys of students and statistical analysis of responses: a richer data set and more nuanced analytical techniques are required. This increases the importance of techniques such as focus groups (Morgan, 1996), peer evaluations (Gatfield, 1999) and reflections (Milliken &amp; Barnes, 2002). However, all methods of data collection have their limitations and all conclusions must be considered provisional and contested.</p> <p>We view pragmatic postmodernity as encouraging a culture of continuous creativity both from the teacher and student perspective, which means we are constantly experimenting with different approaches to teaching and we encourage our students to experiment with different approaches to learning. There is literature that both recommends, and recommends against, presenting students with learning materials in forms that match prevalent student learning styles (Bonwell &amp; Sutherland, 1996; Haynes, 1998). From a postmodern perspective, it is inappropriate to attempt categorisation of students by learning styles (Curry, 1990; Usher &amp; Edwards, 1994) but it is also inappropriate to assume that there will be a resting place where a teacher has developed a set of materials and hence, has completed the development phase of teaching a course. While pragmatic postmodernism seeks to create choice, and encourage and respect different viewpoints, it is far more than simply offering students a range of different activities and allowing students to choose the one they prefer. Pragmatic postmodernism recognises that such segmentation fails to capture the richness of a diverse student population but it does not throw the onus for course development solely onto the teacher.</p> <p>The approach we promote within pragmatic postmodernism is constructing a culture of continuous creativity. This approach recognises that one single approach is unlikely to succeed yet applying multiple approaches simultaneously has a greater chance of success. Postmodern education is not a pure abandonment of everything in the past.</p> <hd id="AN0135500747-5">The experiment of pragmatic postmodernism</hd> <p>In this section, we discuss our approach to developing a pragmatically postmodern course to engage students, incorporating examples of approaches we adopted with our students. In keeping with the philosophical underpinnings of postmodernism, we would not claim that our approach would work at all times, or with all students, because to make such assertions denies the individuality of each student and each student cohort. However, this does not invalidate our techniques. It means they are not presented as a universal panacea but as suggestions for postmodern accounting teaching approaches that can engage students in their learning and lead them to deeper knowledge of accounting. We have focused on the thought processes adopted because thought processes can be replicated irrespective of the area of accounting that is being taught.</p> <p>To manage the trade-off between the freedom required when a course teaching is individualised and the constraints placed on the teaching of accounting by university and professional requirements, learning in each topic was scaffolded into three layers. The first layer was called <emph>The Absolute Basics</emph> and contained basic knowledge about each topic area. All students were required to complete this section, which contained readings, videos and activities relating to the fundamental information essential to understanding each topic. This was taught in the online equivalent of a traditional lecture-tutorial format, with a combination of synchronous and asynchronous lectures and discussions. The material covered was primarily technical including basic bookkeeping, inventory flow and valuation methods, accounting for non-current assets and for liabilities. Each topic was supported by a selection of readings taken from different books and students were encouraged to make mind maps of key points, sharing their mind maps with other students and further developing their own mind maps in response to the shared work of others. A postmodern approach states that change is the one constant in what and how we teach (Rømer, 2003), but that does mean ideas must always be new: they must be appropriate. Similarly, the appropriateness of teaching methods is more important than the use of innovation: both 'chalk and talk' and multiple choice questions may have as much validity as teaching and assessment methods as approaches reliant on current technology or innovative assessment practices. We gave students optional multiple choice tests as they started and completed each topic. Marks were not collected. The pre-topic tests allowed students to determine whether any prior understanding of an area was correct and the post-topic tests focused on understanding accounting jargon and technical accounting skills but also, allowed students to make a self-assessment of their knowledge gain. Students were told that the tests were starting points so they knew when to seek help, whether from the academic staff, other students or external sources. Feedback for each test question was detailed and often included further links. Some of the post-test feedback linked to the second layer of the course, which was optional but with which all students chose to engage, though not always fully.</p> <p>To gain different ideas and perspectives from students, and expose them to the ideas and perspectives of their peers, <emph>The Absolute Basics</emph> included regular group discussion. Exposing students to other viewpoints and teaching them to respect the views of others is not unique to postmodern education (Edmondson, 1999) but postmodernity gives all viewpoints equal validity. This aspect of postmodernity can be helpful when teaching accounting because it can give students an understanding that there are many ways to value, account or disclose, and from the perspective of different users, each may have validity. Accounting standards involve a choice, but that does not lessen the validity of alternatives that have not been incorporated into accounting standards. When students understand that accounting involves choices, they can appreciate the need to understand those choices to determine whether a particular choice provides the most appropriate information for a specific decision.</p> <p>To encourage students to appreciate other perspectives, each weekly topic included a controversial discussion question. For instance, when discussing liabilities, the controversial topic concerned accounting for post-traumatic stress disorder among military personnel. Discussion extended to whether accounting had a role in validating and normalising mental illness, a topic about which students had strong opinions. Controversial topics provide a context to discuss contemporary applications of accounting while requiring students to research each issue and its current accounting practice. Our concern was that students would bypass the controversial topics that required personal research but they proved popular, often leading to tangential discussions about aspects of accounting not normally covered in an introductory accounting course. These discussions were never truncated because to do so would have been deleterious both to building trust and community within the group and to fostering collaborative learning. The following comment is typical of student feedback on the controversial topics:</p> <p>I start each week with the forum. I like that I can't get it wrong because I am saying what I think accounting should do but I read all about that area (of accounting) before I make my comment so I end up learning a lot that way. I like how other students respond to my comments and you can ask questions about the issue and related things and [the lecturer] will tell you whatever you want to know. I like the topics. I was worried when I started the course that I don't know anything about business. I never expected to be discussing music and sport and things I really like, but now in an accounting way. I get to talk about things I know lots about and because I like them, I find the accounting really interesting. My favourite was the discussion about Radiohead selling its album online because I downloaded that album.</p> <p>Trust underpins postmodern teaching environments (Cook-Sather, 2002), although establishing trust is not exclusive to postmodern teaching (Tschannen-Moran &amp; Hoy, 1998). If trust can be built, students may feel more comfortable sharing study concerns and thoughts on anomalies in accounting, as one student did on a public forum:</p> <p>OK, you already know accounting scares the ___ [<emph>expletive deleted</emph>] out of me so I know you won't mind if I'm the one who asks the dumb questions, right? So how come you accountants think debits and credits are actually a sensible idea? And what exactly is off-balance sheet financing? And depreciation ... really!?!</p> <p>This quote was selected because it led to a flurry of online activity from students expressing doubts about their ability to understand accounting and supportive comments from other students, including offers to form study groups to help those who were having difficulty. All students voluntarily joined a study group. Where students were co-located, they became meet-up groups at local cafes. Other groups met exclusively online. While we organised an online space for the groups that met online, this initiative was student led and informal feedback from students indicated how beneficial it was to their learning and for overcoming the isolation of distance that many online students feel.</p> <p>It was important for students to feel they could express their opinions about the topics covered. When students are prepared to express doubts publicly, other struggling students may feel less isolated (Brookfield, 2015) and become more likely to question and challenge, which can underpin collaborative knowledge-sharing (Holton, 2001). Furman (1998) describes the focus of postmodernism on individuality as its dark side, claiming it can be used to deconstruct community, negating the learning benefits of collaboration and group-work. We have seen no evidence of that. Instead, we have seen the spontaneous forming of collaborations by students with diverse and often diametrically opposed views, to the benefit of all involved.</p> <p>The modernist scholarship of teaching and learning refers to cyclical approaches to learning whereby students engage, reflect then use their reflection to re-engage (Kolb, 1984). Feedback indicated that some students had introduced their own cyclical approach to learning, as is illustrated by this comment which was posted onto a discussion forum but which typifies student comments during open-ended online feedback, which was included at the end of each topic and was visible to all students:</p> <p>Then I read [the lecturer's] Forum Comment. It really makes you think, and the other comments too. I would have just accepted the accounting and thought I understood it but the forums make you want to look at the accounting closer. I always want to know what others think when they read the Forum Comment so I usually then go back to the forum and ask and say what I think of the Forum Comment. Reading the replies is the best part. Accounting can look at things in a really odd way. It helps to know others find it odd too. I never thought I'd talk accounting over a beer (with my mates) but after we had the forums on accounting and (sports) salary caps, my mates were really impressed when I explained it to them, accounting and all.</p> <p>In postmodern education, teachers become mentors and learning is planned to give students control over as much of their learning as possible but learning must also be fun because it is always easier to engage with enjoyable areas of study (Bennett &amp; Lockyer, 2004). In an activity to introduce cash management and preparing cash-flow statements, students were asked to identify their favourite song about money and could read academic staff music choices. This led to an opportunity to discuss the role of money in contemporary society. It also led to discussions about cashless societies, Bitcoin, and whether accounting treatments and auditing must change to reflect our changing relationship to cash. While we were concerned that the discussion of music to accounting was not a seamless transition, student feedback indicated otherwise:</p> <p>It's pretty sneaky but in a good way. One minute you are having this heated debate about the best music and the next minute you are talking about cash and accounting just as passionately. I really enjoy the segueways [<emph>sic</emph>] because I never see them coming but they make it really interesting and I don't feel like [the lecturers] are just telling me stuff. It's like a conversation where it flows from topic to topic and I like being in the conversation because everyone can have something to say.</p> <p>The second layer was called <emph>Going Deeper</emph>. Students were offered additional, optional information about a topic, presented as a series of questions with short answers that linked to more online information. To manage our workloads, much of this information was not prepared by us but used links to websites or YouTube videos that supported a topic. Students were free to look at as much or as little of this information as they wished. They could suggest additional links, although we vetted these links for quality. It was not only for our time management purposes that we relied heavily on external materials in this part of the course. First, our students were new to the study of accounting and we wanted to make sure their fundamental knowledge and basic accounting skills were well-developed, so we decided our intellectual effort should be focused on <emph>The Absolute Basics</emph>. It has been our experience that many students who struggle with advanced accounting concepts do so because they lack solid foundational skills in accounting. The importance of supporting the first-year learning experience has been a recurring theme of scholarship in university learning and teaching (Levy &amp; Petrulis, 2012; Ramsay, Barker, &amp; Jones, 1999).</p> <p>At first, student engagement with this section of the course was slow. We mistakenly assumed our students were studying only what was required: we misjudged this. Student usage logs indicated that this part of the course became increasingly popular as the semester progressed and student feedback at the end of topics indicated that their increased engagement with this section of the course was linked to an increasing level of student confidence about accounting and the discovery that accounting was not as boring as students expected. The ubiquity of online accounting information facilitated a level of learning personalisation unavailable in accounting textbooks and led to enthusiastic discussions about how to assess quality in sources of information about accounting. Also, online technologies facilitate non-sequential forms of learning, allowing students to customise and drill down on information relating to their own particular interests and career needs (Moore &amp; Kearsley, 2011; Wan, Wang, &amp; Haggerty, 2008). Personal and workplace interests soon become evident in the online sources students selected for inclusion in the course.</p> <p>The third layer of the course was also optional. It was called <emph>Design your own course</emph>. Individual students could suggest an extension and we supplied information or links to information. All students could access this section, or choose to bypass it, but over 90 per cent of students engaged actively with this area, proposing topics, sharing workplace experience and commenting on posts made by other students. <emph>Design your own course</emph> generated its own momentum, proving so popular that a series of hastily prepared online lectures was delivered on each topic. We had not anticipated that this would be the students' favourite section of the course but end-of-topic feedback indicated that students enjoyed the variety of topics, finding out about the interests of other students and, in particular, the workplace relevance of the topics. <emph>Design your own course</emph> allowed both staff and students to experiment with different approaches to teaching and learning. For example, students with workplace knowledge of an area of accounting shared that knowledge through peer to peer instruction, a method of collaborating that can help students develop a capacity for life-long learning (Miley, 2004). Using a technique known as photovoice (Cooper, Sorensen, &amp; Yarbrough, 2017) that we suggested, a student who had asked for information on environmental accounting presented visual images of pollution in areas where companies operated whose concern for the environment featured in their annual reports. This was a recognition that a picture can indeed be worth a thousand words, to quote an old saying.</p> <p>In all three layers of the course, we adopted a postmodern mind-set shift that entailed taking accounting to the student, rather than expecting students to come to accounting. Traditionally we have attempted through our teaching to bring students to accounting which means that we expect them to be moulded to an accounting world-view (Briggs, Copeland, &amp; Haynes, 2007; Brown &amp; Burke, 1987). Even when we develop critical thinking skills, it is to enhance the ability of students to fit the mould and appreciate the values and practices of accounting (Bernardi, Massey, Thorne, &amp; Downey, 2002; Boyce, 2004). Postmodernism focuses on student learning needs, encouraging them to find opportunities to use accounting knowledge and share their own experiences with accounting. Two examples follow that were posted by students to an online class forum. In the first example, a student attempts to apply accounting jargon and in the second, a student discovers he can understand the financial statements at a board meeting.</p> <p>A tax story using my new knowledge: I went to the accountant to get my tax completed. I was charged $150 (liability for me equals credit). The accountant issued an invoice (accounts receivable for accountant equals debit). I paid the invoice (expense equals debit). The accountant received the cash (revenue equals credit). Accountant sent through info to Tax office (Accounts Receivable equals debit). I came $2000 tax refund (revenue equals credit). Tax office paid me the money (expense equals debit). Outcome: I ended up in credit. Accountant ended up in credit. Tax office DEBIT!! Two out of three of us had financial success! Not sure if my debits and credits are all correct (am sure some are wrong - help please) and this story probably won't help anyone but I am trying to use the lingo[<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref1">1</reflink>] in everyday life so I can remember it!!</p> <p></p> <p>I can read a balance sheet! Yeah! I sat in our board meeting yesterday and for the first time I could read and understand the balance sheet, Cash flow record, P and L for the month and something else I can't remember but damn it felt good! This is exactly what I've been wanting to get out of the course. And I have only read chapter 1 and half of chapter 2 (I know I'm behind. I have taken today off to catch up and do that self-assessment quiz.) Anyways just wanted to share I'm bloody happy with that.</p> <p></p> <p>The enthusiastic response of students when other students shared their stories led to the extensive use of student storytelling as a method of learning and of demonstrating understanding. Storytelling is a teaching approach with extensive support in the scholarship of teaching and learning (Frisch &amp; Saunders, 2008; Miley, 2005, 2009; Miley et al., 2012; Miley &amp; Read, 2013; Wiebe &amp; Stinner, 2010). While storytelling is not a postmodernist invention, creating space for this form of student-led learning is consistent with postmodern teaching.</p> <p>We discovered that stories did not have to be about accounting to enhance understanding of accounting. Just as fairy tales often make moral points indirectly, we discovered that telling a non-accounting story and asking students to explain the link to accounting was more effective than telling an accounting story because it created space both for students to be creative in their accounting applications and to discuss their interpretations, leading to the shared creation of knowledge. Using an accounting cartoon or accounting joke as the basis for a discussion also worked well: students were asked which aspects of accounting were consistent, or inconsistent, with the humour and to explain their choice. When using jokes as the basis for discussion students rarely related the humour to accounting in the same way that teaching staff did. A joke about an accountant who counts the number of sheep in a field by counting their legs and dividing by four was used by staff to illustrate the inherent double-checking of the double-entry process but students saw it as an analogy for the convoluted inventory flow assumptions, perceived difficulty in preparing statements of cash flows, and the stereotype of the overly precise accountant. Postmodern teaching requires creating space for unexpected discussions (Usher et al., 2004) but this is not easy when teaching time is always at a premium and one of the main teaching choices can be what to leave out of a course of teaching rather than what to include.</p> <p>Allowing students to treat their learning as a simultaneous process of self-discovery and accounting discovery was a high-risk strategy because not all students responded as readily to this approach. This was not surprising because they were unaccustomed to being taught in an environment of such freedom. We were also conscious of accreditation requirements and the need to meet learning outcomes but pragmatic postmodernism is not about offering total learning freedom. It is about offering as much freedom for individual learning as constraints allow.</p> <p>Many features of pragmatic postmodernism are consistent with modernist teaching but have simply moved along a continuum that prioritises differently the possibility of individualising learning. This does not lessen the philosophical difference between modernist and postmodern approaches to teaching. However, if an important aim of teaching is to engage students in their learning, modernist approaches to accounting education will appeal to students who accept the current dominant world-view of accounting but pragmatic postmodernist approaches to accounting education will seek to engage students who have difficulty accepting the modernist world-view. This is to the benefit of the accounting profession, which has recognised the importance of attracting graduates who think in ways not traditionally associated with accounting (Andon, Chong, &amp; Roebuck, 2010; Jackling &amp; Watty, 2010; Kavanagh &amp; Drennan, 2008; Marriott &amp; Marriott, 2003).</p> <hd id="AN0135500747-6">Discussion</hd> <p>It often felt like postmodern education involved a scatter-gun approach. A variety of activities and information would be thrown at students with a faint hope that some stuck. We regularly doubted the efficacy, and debated the effectiveness of what we were doing yet student feedback was unanimously positive and students reported that they were engaged confident with accounting and enthusiastic to learn more. They also reported favourably on the workplace relevance of their accounting studies.</p> <p>As educators, we recognise the importance of understanding how students learn but empirical measurements that seek to categorise students and measure their learning by simple empiricism are intrinsically grounded in modernity with an over-estimation of the explanatory power of most statistical interpretation. Accounting journals contain a plethora of research that compares two sample groups, focusing on one variable that differs between them, such as attitude to study, age, family background or the use of a teaching innovation. Implicit in this type of research is that all other variables have a mean of zero and are randomly distributed such that the one variable that has been isolated explains any discovered difference between the sample groups. This type of research is easy to do but difficult to justify because it ignores the complexity of individual student learning.</p> <p>A frequent criticism of postmodern education is that you cannot assess students' learning outcomes when learning is individualised (Slattery, 2012): postmodernism rejects traditional empirical approaches to measurement of student learning as over-simplifications that classify students with an arbitrary arrogance that ignores the individual learning experience (Macdonald et al., 2002). This is not an issue with pragmatic postmodernism since there is a core of shared fundamental knowledge that can be taught and assessed by pre-determined, standardised methods. Consistent with the focus on individuality of postmodern education, in addition to encouraging student feedback at the end of each topic that could be viewed by all students so it was open and transparent, and to which we responded, we added a layer of self-assessment and asked students to make this self-assessment at regular intervals throughout their course, although they could access this tool any time to make additional self-assessments. We used a simple form of self-reflection on learning that allowed students to determine personal progress. This form of self-assessment was intended to counter-balance the university's focus on formal assessment so that students whose academic achievements were not large by university standards could measure their own progression compared to when they started studying accounting and, hopefully, feel a sense of achievement as they recognised how much more they understood about accounting. A copy of the spider graphs for a student who received the mean mark in all assessment tasks is given below (Figure 1). This student reported that she was extremely pleased with her progress because she improved on all categories measured in the spider graph. At the end of the semester, this student was contacted and asked about her level of satisfaction with her course performance. She said that her formal grades were not as high as she had hoped, but she had been studying while managing work and family pressures. She added that the spider graphs were more useful than the formal assessment because they confirmed what she knew about her enhanced understanding of accounting. We had not asked her about the spider graphs so this was a spontaneous comment.</p> <p>PHOTO (COLOR): Figure 1. Student self-assessment of progress using a spider graph based on an Excel spreadsheet (higher numbers indicate better scores).</p> <p>Students were able to include other categories in their spider graph to measure self-improvement but this student chose to use only the categories provided in the spider graph model that was presented to students. Other students included a variety of additional measures in their spider graph that had meaning to them including ability to engage with workplace accountants, ability to understand workplace accounting reports, ability to maintain a commitment to weekly study of accounting and ability to assess the quality of a YouTube video on accounting.</p> <p>Extant literature suggests students are mark-focused and assessment dictates learning (Scouller, 1998). We would contend that many postgraduate students come to realise that marks and grades are often reflections of the time they have available for study, as opposed to their understanding of a discipline, and hence, personal student success measures that are difficult to measure empirically can become more important for them. When asked about measures of success in accounting that were important to them, very few of our students mentioned marks or grades. The most frequent answers pertained to understanding accounting in the workplace and being able to think about and/or discuss an accounting topic with confidence.</p> <p>The quality of student reflections on accounting provided a non-measurable indicator that they were gaining confidence in thinking about, using, and discussing accounting topics. Although from a postmodern perspective, reflection is a <emph>grande narrative</emph> and is not the only approach for considering the validity of knowledge, we encouraged reflection throughout the course to provide a tool for students to consider the validity of their own, and other, perspectives. There is considerable literature on the role in the learning cycle both of student reflection and reflective teaching practice (Välimaa &amp; Hoffman, 2008; Wong, Kember, Chung, &amp; Yan, 1995). We were surprised that reflection became a collaborative tool, not through practices we had established but by student choice. We noted that student reflection became an increasingly recursive process as students' understanding of accounting deepened. The following extract from a student post illustrates his reflection on a topic and reflective engagement with other students.</p> <p>Completely agree that at all levels (Defence, State, National) the full cost of mental health is not fully understood. I also agree that better prevention strategies are worth exploring is just waiting to react to the emergent issue is proving costly and damaging in so many ways (cost, individual health, community health, retention, reputation). An interesting Editorial Comment in <emph>The Australian</emph> [newspaper] a few years ago made the comment along the lines of 'the only people interested in submarines of those who work on them, and you'll never be able to spend enough on health until you find a cure for death'. As such, the amount of money available for any health issue is always going to be limited and needs to be targeted. I'd be interested to know why you think we should not measure costs at the individual (by this I mean Command level, not individual person) and deployment level. By seeing where disproportionate cases are occurring we can see what strategies are working, and which ones are not.</p> <p></p> <p>A particular concern when we commenced the teaching of this course was student antagonism towards accounting and accountants so it was important for us to determine whether we had improved student perceptions. At the end of the course, students reviewed their pre-course survey comments and were asked whether they wanted to change them. All students changed their pre-course survey comments and all comments indicated a positive change in student perceptions. Post-course survey asking the same open-ended questions about accounting, accountants and attitudes towards studying accounting that were asked in the pre-course survey. Post-course surveys revealed a radical shift in student attitudes and in the language used when describing accountants. While student comments indicated that expected workplace dealings with accountants to continue to be difficult because they would continue to deal primarily with accountants when budget cuts were imminent, if their section had not met budget targets or if their section was late in providing financial information, students expressed an understanding of, and empathy for, the role of the accountant. Representative comments include 'I know they are just doing their job', 'I only thought about our section but I can see that the accountant has to look at the bigger picture and that must be difficult' and 'We are specialists at our job and they are specialists at their job, and both of us play an important role'. In the pre-course survey, words like bean-counters were used to describe accountants but in the post-course survey, words like 'professional', 'expert' and 'specialist' appeared.</p> <p>A more striking indication of the change in student perceptions was provided by a rather tongue-in-cheek vote conducted online at the start and at the end of the course. Students were asked to vote for the words that was closest to their view of accounting, choosing from a range of words to finish the sentence 'Accounting is ... '. The choices available to students were as follows:</p> <p>Accounting is:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> Fascinating</item> <p></p> <item> A Mystery</item> <p></p> <item> Essential to any organisation</item> <p></p> <item> Boring but I know it is necessary</item> <p></p> </ulist> <p>• Useless</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> I have no idea what accounting is</item> </ulist> <p>The language in the choices was chosen deliberately to reflect a casualness that we tried to reinforce throughout the semester. Our intention was that casual language would make accounting appear more accessible to students. The results of student vote at the start and end of the course indicates a dramatic shift in student perceptions about accounting (Figure 2).</p> <p>PHOTO (COLOR): Figure 2. Results of student vote on perceptions of accounting, taken at the beginning and end of the course.</p> <p>Postmodernity does not reject modernity, or any other form of knowledge but it does not prioritise one form of knowledge over another. As we reflected on our adoption of pragmatic postmodernism, it became apparent that most of the individual changes that we introduced into our course were achievable within a modernist university environment but that we would not have taken the risk to move as far from our prior teaching, or made as many changes at the one time, if it not been for our initial engagement with the literature on postmodernism and growing conviction of its merit. In the extant literature, postmodernism seems an ephemeral concept with an unclear meaning so it seems difficult to operationalise in day-to-day teaching (Rømer, 2003; Usher et al., 2004). Taking the more ephemeral aspects of postmodern teaching and grounding them within the constraints of our teaching requirements was an important factor in our development of the concept of pragmatic postmodernism.</p> <p>Postmodern teaching is intended to fit students for a postmodern world (Marshall, 2013; Usher &amp; Edwards, 1994). However, it is difficult to view technical aspects of accounting as part of a postmodern world when the ongoing emphasis of accounting standards is making visible economic consequences, at the expense of other social and environmental consequences that remain tangential to accounting disclosure. Until accounting has caught up with postmodernity, the mismatch between calls for postmodern teaching and the constraints of accounting teaching will remain and postmodern teaching will continue to be an ideal in accounting.</p> <p>Students who do not fit the mould that we design through the way we teach accounting are doomed to fail, underperform or succeed through sheer bloody-mindedness but probably without every discovering what enthused us to become accountants and move into academia. It is these students who are given an opportunity to succeed through the creativity of pragmatic postmodernism so that they are less likely to fall through the academic cracks and are therefore more likely to bring a dimension of creative thought into professional practice that professional accounting bodies have recognised as important (Briggs et al., 2007). Although our students would not become accountants, they engage with accountants and accounting in the workplace. Accounting is a service industry so it should be expected to reflect, or be influenced by, those it serves. Hence, perceptions about accountants and accounting should have some influence on constructions of the accountant and the profession of accounting. While beyond the scope of this research, examining the impact of perceptions of users on the construction of the accountant and accounting may be an area worthy of closer examination, and any examination of this topic should include some consideration of the teaching of accounting to non-accountants since it may create perceptions about accounting in accounting users that impact on how accountants view themselves and their profession.</p> <p>If pragmatic postmodernity seems like modified modernist teaching, that is because it is. Similarly, it can be viewed from the other end of the continuum as modified postmodernist teaching. We acknowledge that it is a hybrid. There is one issue about this hybrid that has not yet been addressed: the importance of naming it. In teaching, we make conscious choices about what we teach and how we teach. It is important to give name to those choices by recognising the teaching philosophy we have adopted because this can aid reflective teaching practice, demonstrate our accountability for our teaching decisions, and provide a language to explain to students and colleagues how our choices will benefit our students (Ramsden, 1992). By classifying, labelling and understanding our teaching philosophy, it becomes easier to make teaching choices consistent with that philosophy (Bennett &amp; Lockyer, 2004).</p> <hd id="AN0135500747-7">Conclusion</hd> <p>The contribution of our research is the development of <emph>pragmatic postmodernism</emph>, an approach to teaching accounting that reconciles the philosophy of postmodern teaching with the realities that constrain tertiary teaching in accounting, and the illustrative examples we provide to facilitate use of this teaching approach. It seeks to create a culture of continuous creativity. This approach acknowledges that classifying students for the purposes of teaching or research is always problematic as student individuality will inevitably be lost in the process. However, without any attempt to classify and order learning, and with individualised student learning, the teaching workload and the classroom can become unmanageable and it can be difficult to set milestones that benchmark progress in student learning.</p> <p>Postmodern purists may well cringe at the liberties we have taken but teaching always involves trade-offs; we traded off postmodern purism for pragmatism, even though we recognise that some desirable benefits of individualised learning were lost. Rather than treating modernist and postmodern teaching as dichotomous, we view them as being on a spectrum where we shifted as far to the postmodern end of the spectrum as feasible with the practical constraints externally imposed on us, and possibly the mental constraints internally imposed by a desire to keep risks in teaching manageable, in case a quick fall-back plan was required to avert disaster.</p> <p>We continue to use pragmatic postmodernism as a framework to inform how we teach. What we teach is largely determined by professional accounting requirements, though this allows some latitude in content which creates a space for students to discuss what accounting could be like if unconstrained by current technical standards. Discussions of this type allow students to bring individual thinking into the classroom whilst keeping their thoughts focused on accounting topics. From a postmodern viewpoint, these students will be part of shaping future professional standards so they should be exploring issues and debating alternatives, and in keeping with postmodern views on the validity of all perspectives, learning to listen to each other and respect views with which they differ. It is in this area of preparing students for the future of accounting, not just its present, that we continue to make the most improvements. The main limitation of any move to postmodernism continues to be measurement difficulties to have assurance of success. On raw scores from formal university assessment of our course, our students were successful but from feedback and self-assessment during the course, they became engaged and confident with using accounting information for decision-making and improved their perceptions about accounting and accountants during their course of study. However, we acknowledge that since these approaches to measuring engagement and learning lack the rigour of empirical research, at least as that term has been understood in modernist and positivist approaches to measuring student learning benefits, they may inhibit the adoption of postmodern teaching in accounting. We also recognise the dominance of modernist empirical research methods in journals on accounting education impact adversely on consideration of other teaching approaches, especially when the other approaches are difficult to substantiate empirically.</p> <p>However, if we are to enter the three-way transaction between the student, teacher and material being studied in order to understand how students learn, an essential precursor is shifting towards postmodern education because otherwise, student learning will remain a black hole about which we make assumptions based on our statistical analyses but which we do not fully understand.</p> <ref id="AN0135500747-8"> <title> Note </title> <blist> <bibl id="bib1" idref="ref1" type="bt">1</bibl> <bibtext> Slang for 'language'.</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <hd id="AN0135500747-9">Acknowledgements</hd> <p>We would like to thank participants at the RMIT Accounting Educators' Conference 2016 for their helpful comments. We would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their suggestions which led to improvements in this paper.</p> <hd id="AN0135500747-10">Disclosure statement</hd> <p>No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.</p> <hd id="AN0135500747-11">ORCID</hd> <p> <emph>Frances Miley</emph> <ulink href="http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5706-6372">http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5706-6372</ulink> </p> <p> <emph>Andrew Read</emph> <ulink href="http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3473-6684">http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3473-6684</ulink> </p> <ref id="AN0135500747-12"> <title> References </title> <blist> <bibtext> Adler, R. W., &amp; Milne, M. J. ( 1997 ). Improving the quality of accounting students' learning through action-oriented learning tasks. <emph>Accounting Education</emph>, <emph>6</emph> ( 3 ), 191 - 215. doi: 10.1080/096392897331442</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib2" type="bt">2</bibl> <bibtext> Andon, P., Chong, K. M., &amp; Roebuck, P. ( 2010 ). Personality preferences of accounting and non-accounting graduates seeking to enter the accounting profession. <emph>Critical Perspectives on Accounting</emph>, <emph>21</emph> ( 4 ), 253 - 265. doi: 10.1016/j.cpa.2010.01.001</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib3" type="bt">3</bibl> <bibtext> Aviram, R., &amp; Yonah, Y. ( 2004 ). 'Flexible control': Towards a conception of personal autonomy for postmodern education. <emph>Educational Philosophy and Theory</emph>, <emph>36</emph> ( 1 ), 3 - 17. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-5812.2004.00045.x</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib4" type="bt">4</bibl> <bibtext> Baker, R. E., Simon, J. R., &amp; Bazeli, F. P. ( 1986 ). An assessment of the learning style preferences of accounting majors. <emph>Issues in Accounting Education</emph>, <emph>1</emph> ( 1 ), 1 - 12.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib5" type="bt">5</bibl> <bibtext> Bennett, S., &amp; Lockyer, L. ( 2004 ). Becoming an online teacher: Adapting to a changed environment for teaching and learning in higher education. <emph>Educational Media International</emph>, <emph>41</emph> ( 3 ), 231 - 248. doi: 10.1080/09523980410001680842</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib6" type="bt">6</bibl> <bibtext> Bernardi, R. A., Massey, D. W., Thorne, L., &amp; Downey, A. ( 2002 ). Critical thinking and moral reasoning of intermediate accounting students. <emph>Research on Accounting Ethics</emph>, <emph>8</emph>, 73 - 102.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib7" type="bt">7</bibl> <bibtext> Biggs, J. B. ( 1999 ). What the student does: Teaching for enhanced learning. <emph>Higher Education Research and Development</emph>, <emph>18</emph> ( 1 ), 57 - 75.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib8" type="bt">8</bibl> <bibtext> Boje, D. M. ( 2001 ). Carnivalesque resistance to global spectacle: A critical postmodern theory of public administration. <emph>Administrative Theory &amp; Praxis</emph>, <emph>23</emph> ( 3 ), 431 - 458. doi: 10.1080/10841806.2001.11643535</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib9" type="bt">9</bibl> <bibtext> Bonwell, C. C., &amp; Sutherland, T. E. ( 1996 ). The active learning continuum: Choosing activities to engage students in the classroom. <emph>New Directions for Teaching and Learning</emph>, 67, 3 - 16. doi: 10.1002/tl.37219966704</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Boyce, G. ( 2004 ). Critical accounting education: Teaching and learning outside the circle. <emph>Critical Perspectives on Accounting</emph>, <emph>15</emph> ( 4-5 ), 565 - 586. doi: 10.1016/s1045-2354(03)00047-9</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Briggs, S. P., Copeland, S., &amp; Haynes, D. ( 2007 ). Accountants for the 21st century, where are you? A five-year study of accounting students' personality preferences. <emph>Critical Perspectives on Accounting</emph>, <emph>18</emph> ( 5 ), 511 - 537. doi: 10.1016/j.cpa.2006.01.013</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Brookfield, S. D. ( 2015 ). <emph>The skillful teacher: On technique, trust, and responsiveness in the classroom</emph>. San Francisco, CA : John Wiley.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Brown, H. D., &amp; Burke, R. C. ( 1987 ). Accounting education: A learning-styles study of professional-technical and future adaptation issues. <emph>Journal of Accounting Education</emph>, <emph>5</emph> ( 2 ), 187 - 206. doi: 10.1016/0748-5751(87)90018-2</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Carnaghan, C., &amp; Webb, A. ( 2007 ). Investigating the effects of group response systems on student satisfaction, learning, and engagement in accounting education. <emph>Issues in Accounting Education</emph>, <emph>22</emph> ( 3 ), 391 - 409. doi: 10.2308/iace.2007.22.3.391</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Conrad, R.-M., &amp; Donaldson, J. A. ( 2011 ). <emph>Engaging the online learner: Activities and resources for creative instruction</emph> ( Vol. 38 ). San Francisco, CA : John Wiley.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Cook-Sather, A. ( 2002 ). Authorizing students' perspectives: Toward trust, dialogue, and change in education. <emph>Educational Researcher</emph>, <emph>31</emph> ( 4 ), 3 - 14. doi: 10.3102/0013189x031004003</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Cooper, C., Sorensen, W., &amp; Yarbrough, S. ( 2017 ). Visualising the health of communities: Using photovoice as a pedagogical tool in the college classroom. <emph>Health Education Journal</emph>, <emph>76</emph> ( 4 ), 454 - 466. doi: 10.1177/0017896917691790</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Craig, R., &amp; Amernic, J. ( 2002 ). Accountability of accounting educators and the rhythm of the university: Resistance strategies for postmodern blues. <emph>Accounting Education</emph>, <emph>11</emph> ( 2 ), 121 - 171. doi: 10.1080/0963928021000031772</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Curry, L. ( 1990 ). A critique of the research on learning styles. <emph>Educational Leadership</emph>, <emph>48</emph> ( 2 ), 50 - 56.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Dallimore, E. J., Hertenstein, J. H., &amp; Platt, M. B. ( 2010 ). Class participation in accounting courses: Factors that affect student comfort and learning. <emph>Issues in Accounting Education</emph>, <emph>25</emph> ( 4 ), 613 - 629. doi: 10.2308/iace.2010.25.4.613</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> de Bello, T. ( 1990 ). Comparison of eleven major learning styles models: Variables, appropriate populations, validity of instrumentation, and the research behind them. <emph>Reading &amp; Writing Quarterly</emph>, <emph>6</emph> ( 3 ), 203 - 222. doi: 10.1080/0748763900060302</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Delanty, G. ( 2003 ). Ideologies of the knowledge society and the cultural contradictions of higher education. <emph>Policy Futures in Education</emph>, <emph>1</emph> ( 1 ), 71 - 82. doi: 10.2304/pfie.2003.1.1.9</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Dickey, M. ( 2005 ). Engaging by design: How engagement strategies in popular computer and video games can inform instructional design. <emph>Educational Technology Research and Development</emph>, <emph>53</emph> ( 2 ), 67 - 83. doi: 10.1007/bf02504866</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Dillard, J. F., &amp; Tinker, A. M. ( 1996 ). Commodifying business and accounting education: The implications of accreditation. <emph>Critical Perspectives on Accounting</emph>, <emph>7</emph> ( 1 ), 215 - 225. doi: 10.1006/cpac.1996.0027</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Edmondson, A. ( 1999 ). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. <emph>Administrative Science Quarterly</emph>, <emph>44</emph> ( 2 ), 350 - 383.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Entwistle, N. J., McCune, V., &amp; Walker, P. ( 2001 ). Conceptions, styles and approaches within higher education: Analytic abstractions and everyday experience. In R. J. Sternberg &amp; L. F. Zhang (Eds.), <emph>Perspectives on thinking, learning, and cognitive styles</emph> (pp. 103 - 136 ). Mahwah, NJ : Lawrence Erlbaum.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Entwistle, N. J., &amp; Ramsden, P. ( 1983 ). <emph>Understanding student learning</emph>. London : Croom Helm.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Franzoni, A., &amp; Assar, S. ( 2009 ). Student learning styles adaptation method based on teaching strategies and electronic media. <emph>Educational Technology &amp; Society</emph>, <emph>12</emph> ( 4 ), 15 - 29. doi: 10.1109/icalt.2008.149</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Frisch, J. K., &amp; Saunders, G. ( 2008 ). Using stories in an introductory college biology course. <emph>Journal of Biological Education</emph>, <emph>42</emph> ( 4 ), 164 - 169. doi: 10.1080/00219266.2008.9656135</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Furman, G. C. ( 1998 ). Postmodernism and community in schools: Unraveling the paradox. <emph>Educational Administration Quarterly</emph>, <emph>34</emph> ( 3 ), 298 - 328. doi: 10.1177/0013161x98034003003</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Gatfield, T. ( 1999 ). Examining student satisfaction with group projects and peer assessment. <emph>Assessment &amp; Evaluation in Higher Education</emph>, <emph>24</emph> ( 4 ), 365 - 377. doi: 10.1080/0260293990240401</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Giroux, H. A., Lankshear, C., McLaren, P., &amp; Peters, M. ( 1996 ). <emph>Counter narratives: Cultural studies and critical pedagogies in postmodern spaces</emph>. New York, NY : Routledge.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Goldstone, B. P. ( 2001 ). Whaz up with our books? Changing picture book codes and teaching implications. <emph>The Reading Teacher</emph>, <emph>55</emph> ( 4 ), 362 - 370.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Haynes, J. ( 1998 ). <emph>Teaching to students' learning styles</emph>. EverythingESL.net. Retrieved from <ulink href="http://www.everythingesl.net/inservices/learningstyle.php">http://www.everythingesl.net/inservices/learningstyle.php</ulink></bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Henri, F., &amp; Kaye, A. ( 1993 ). Problems of distance education. In K. Harry, D. Keegan, &amp; M. John (Eds.), <emph>Distance education: New perspectives</emph> (pp. 25 - 32 ). Abingdon : Routledge.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Herrington, J., Oliver, R., &amp; Reeves, T. C. ( 2003 ). Patterns of engagement in authentic online learning environments. <emph>Australian Journal of Educational Technology</emph>, <emph>19</emph> ( 1 ), 59 - 71. doi: 10.14742/ajet.1701</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Holton, J. A. ( 2001 ). Building trust and collaboration in a virtual team. <emph>Team Performance Management: An International Journal</emph>, <emph>7</emph> ( 3/4 ), 36 - 47. doi: 10.1108/13527590110395621</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Howieson, B. ( 2003 ). Accounting practice in the new millennium: Is accounting education ready to meet the challenge? <emph>The British Accounting Review</emph>, <emph>35</emph> ( 2 ), 69 - 103. doi: 10.1016/s0890-8389(03)00004-0</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Jackling, B., &amp; Watty, K. ( 2010 ). The accounting professional of the future: Never mind the quality check the look! <emph>International Journal of Critical Accounting</emph>, <emph>2</emph> ( 2 ), 170 - 190. doi: 10.1504/IJCA.2010.031387</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> James, K. ( 2008 ). A critical theory and postmodernist approach to the teaching of accounting theory. <emph>Critical Perspectives on Accounting</emph>, <emph>19</emph> ( 5 ), 643 - 676. doi: 10.1016/j.cpa.2006.11.004</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Kavanagh, M. H., &amp; Drennan, L. ( 2008 ). What skills and attributes does an accounting graduate need? Evidence from student perceptions and employer expectations. <emph>Accounting &amp; Finance</emph>, <emph>48</emph> ( 2 ), 279 - 300. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-629X.2007.00245.x</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Kolb, D. A. ( 1984 ). <emph>Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development</emph>. Englewood Cliffs, NJ : Prentice Hall.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Levy, P., &amp; Petrulis, R. ( 2012 ). How do first-year university students experience inquiry and research, and what are the implications for the practice of inquiry-based learning? <emph>Studies in Higher Education</emph>, <emph>37</emph> ( 1 ), 85 - 101. doi: 10.1080/03075079.2010.499166</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Lyotard, J. F. ( 1984 ). <emph>The postmodern condition: A report on knowledge</emph> (G. Bennington &amp; B. Massumi, Trans.). Manchester : Manchester University Press.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Macdonald, D., Kirk, D., Metzler, M., Nilges, L. M., Schempp, P., &amp; Wright, J. ( 2002 ). It's all very well, in theory: Theoretical perspectives and their applications in contemporary pedagogical research. <emph>Quest</emph>, <emph>54</emph> ( 2 ), 133 - 156. doi: 10.1080/00336297.2002.10491771</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Marriott, P., &amp; Marriott, N. ( 2003 ). Are we turning them on? A longitudinal study of undergraduate accounting students' attitudes towards accounting as a profession. <emph>Accounting Education</emph>, <emph>12</emph> ( 2 ), 113 - 133. doi: 10.1080/0963928032000091738</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Marshall, B. ( 2013 ). <emph>Teaching the postmodern</emph>. New York, NY : Routledge.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> McCormack, C., &amp; Pamphilon, B. ( 2004 ). More than a confessional: Postmodern groupwork to support postgraduate supervisors' professional development. <emph>Innovations in Education and Teaching International</emph>, <emph>41</emph> ( 1 ), 23 - 37. doi: 10.1080/1470329032000172694</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> McPhail, K. ( 1999 ). The threat of ethical accountants: An application of Foucault's concept of ethics to accounting education and some thoughts on ethically educating for the other. <emph>Critical Perspectives on Accounting</emph>, <emph>10</emph> ( 6 ), 833 - 866. doi: 10.1006/cpac.1998.0277</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> McPhail, K. ( 2004 ). An emotional response to the state of accounting education: Developing accounting students' emotional intelligence. <emph>Critical Perspectives on Accounting</emph>, <emph>15</emph> ( 4 ), 629 - 648. doi: 10.1016/S1045-2354(03)00050-9</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Miley, F. M. ( 2004 ). Peer teaching for life-long learning skills. <emph>Academic Exchange Quarterly</emph>, <emph>8</emph> ( 2 ), 254 - 259.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Miley, F. M. ( 2005 ). <emph>Firing the imagination: Using military stories in accounting</emph>. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia, Sydney. Retrieved from <ulink href="http://conference.herdsa.org.au/2005/pdf/non%5frefereed/373.pdf">http://conference.herdsa.org.au/2005/pdf/non%5frefereed/373.pdf</ulink></bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Miley, F. M. ( 2009 ). The storytelling project: Innovating to engage students in their learning. <emph>Higher Education Research and Development</emph>, <emph>28</emph> ( 4 ), 357 - 369. doi: 10.1080/07294360903046892</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Miley, F. M., Cram, B., Griffin, A. L., Kennelly, R., McCormack, C., &amp; Read, A. F. ( 2012 ). <emph>Using stories in teaching</emph>. Sydney : Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Miley, F. M., &amp; Read, A. F. ( 2013 ). Making accounting interesting: Achieving the impossible through storytelling? In A. Flood &amp; K. S. Coleman (Eds.), <emph>Disciplines: The lenses of learning</emph> (pp. 111 - 122 ). Champaign, IL : Common Grounds Publishing LLC.University Press.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Milliken, J., &amp; Barnes, L. P. ( 2002 ). Teaching and technology in higher education: Student perceptions and personal reflections. <emph>Computers &amp; Education</emph>, <emph>39</emph> ( 3 ), 223 - 235. doi: 10.1016/s0360-1315(02)00042-8</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Moore, M. G., &amp; Kearsley, G. ( 2011 ). <emph>Distance education: A systems view of online learning</emph>. Belmont : Cengage Learning.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Morgan, D. L. ( 1996 ). Focus groups. <emph>Annual Review of Sociology</emph>, <emph>22</emph>, 129 - 152. doi: 10.1146/annurev.soc.22.1.129</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Oliver, B., &amp; Goerke, V. ( 2007 ). Australian undergraduates' use and ownership of emerging technologies: Implications and opportunities for creating engaging learning experiences for the net generation. <emph>Australasian Journal of Educational Technology</emph>, <emph>23</emph> ( 2 ), 171 - 186. doi: 10.14742/ajet.1263</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Parker, S. ( 1997 ). <emph>Reflective teaching in the postmodern world: A manifesto for education in postmodernity</emph>. Buckingham : Open University Press.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Powell, K. C., &amp; Kalina, C. J. ( 2009 ). Cognitive and social constructivism: Developing tools for an effective classroom. <emph>Education</emph>, <emph>130</emph> ( 2 ), 241 - 250.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Poynor, R. ( 2003 ). <emph>No more rules: Graphic design and postmodernism</emph>. New Haven : Yale University Press.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Ramsay, S., Barker, M., &amp; Jones, E. ( 1999 ). Academic adjustment and learning processes: A comparison of international and local students in first-year university. <emph>Higher Education Research &amp; Development</emph>, <emph>18</emph> ( 1 ), 129 - 144. doi: 10.1080/0729436990180110</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Ramsden, P. ( 1992 ). <emph>Learning to teach in higher education</emph>. London : Routledge.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Rømer, T. A. ( 2003 ). Learning and assessment in postmodern education. <emph>Educational Theory</emph>, <emph>53</emph> ( 3 ), 313 - 327. doi: 10.1111/j.1741-5446.2003.00313.x</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Scanlan, S. J., &amp; Feinberg, S. L. ( 2000 ). The cartoon society: Using the Simpsons to teach and learn sociology. <emph>Teaching Sociology</emph>, <emph>28</emph> ( 2 ), 127 - 139.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Scouller, K. ( 1998 ). The influence of assessment method on students' learning approaches: Multiple choice question examination versus assignment essay. <emph>Higher Education</emph>, <emph>35</emph> ( 4 ), 453 - 472.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Slattery, P. ( 2012 ). <emph>Curriculum development in the postmodern era: Teaching and learning in an age of accountability</emph>. New York, NY : Routledge.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Soja, E. W. ( 1989 ). <emph>Postmodern geographies: The reassertion of space in critical social theory</emph>. London : Verso.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Steffe, L. P., &amp; Gale, J. (Eds.). ( 1995 ). <emph>Constructivism in education</emph>. Hillsdale, NJ : Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Tinker, A. M., &amp; Puxty, A. ( 1995 ). <emph>Policing accounting knowledge: The market for excuses affair</emph>. Princeton, NJ : Markus Wiener.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Tschannen-Moran, M., &amp; Hoy, W. ( 1998 ). Trust in schools: A conceptual and empirical analysis. <emph>Journal of Educational Administration</emph>, <emph>36</emph> ( 4 ), 334 - 352. doi: 10.1108/09578239810211518</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Usher, R. S., Bryant, I., &amp; Johnston, R. ( 2004 ). <emph>Adult education and the postmodern challenge: Learning beyond the limits</emph>. London : Routledge.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Usher, R. S., &amp; Edwards, R. ( 1994 ). <emph>Postmodernism and education</emph>. London : Routledge.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Välimaa, J., &amp; Hoffman, D. ( 2008 ). Knowledge society discourse and higher education. <emph>Higher Education</emph>, <emph>56</emph> ( 3 ), 265 - 285. doi: 10.1007/s10734-008-9123-7</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Wan, Z., Wang, Y., &amp; Haggerty, N. ( 2008 ). Why people benefit from e-learning differently: The effects of psychological processes on e-learning outcomes. <emph>Information &amp; Management</emph>, <emph>45</emph> ( 8 ), 513 - 521. doi: 10.1016/j.im.2008.08.003</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Wenger, E. ( 2000 ). Communities of practice and social learning systems. <emph>Organization</emph>, <emph>7</emph> ( 2 ), 225 - 246. doi: 10.1177/135050840072002</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Wiebe, R., &amp; Stinner, A. ( 2010 ). Using story to help student understanding of gas behavior. <emph>Interchange</emph>, <emph>41</emph> ( 4 ), 347 - 361. doi: 10.1007/s10780-010-9135-y</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Wong, F. K., Kember, D., Chung, L. Y., &amp; Yan, L. ( 1995 ). Assessing the level of student reflection from reflective journals. <emph>Journal of Advanced Nursing</emph>, <emph>22</emph> ( 1 ), 48 - 57. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2648.1995.22010048.x</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <aug> <p>By Frances Miley and Andrew Read</p> </aug> |
|---|---|
| Header | DbId: eric DbLabel: ERIC An: EJ1207610 AccessLevel: 3 PubType: Academic Journal PubTypeId: academicJournal PreciseRelevancyScore: 0 |
| IllustrationInfo | |
| Items | – Name: Title Label: Title Group: Ti Data: Pragmatic Postmodernism and Engagement through the Culture of Continuous Creativity – Name: Language Label: Language Group: Lang Data: English – Name: Author Label: Authors Group: Au Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Miley%2C+Frances%22">Miley, Frances</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5706-6372">0000-0002-5706-6372</externalLink>)<br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Read%2C+Andrew%22">Read, Andrew</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3473-6684">0000-0003-3473-6684</externalLink>) – Name: TitleSource Label: Source Group: Src Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SO" term="%22Accounting+Education%22"><i>Accounting Education</i></searchLink>. 2019 28(2):172-194. – Name: Avail Label: Availability Group: Avail Data: Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals – Name: PeerReviewed Label: Peer Reviewed Group: SrcInfo Data: Y – Name: Pages Label: Page Count Group: Src Data: 23 – Name: DatePubCY Label: Publication Date Group: Date Data: 2019 – Name: TypeDocument Label: Document Type Group: TypDoc Data: Journal Articles<br />Reports - Research – Name: Audience Label: Education Level Group: Audnce Data: <searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Higher+Education%22">Higher Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Postsecondary+Education%22">Postsecondary Education</searchLink> – Name: Subject Label: Descriptors Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Accounting%22">Accounting</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Business+Administration+Education%22">Business Administration Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22College+Students%22">College Students</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Postmodernism%22">Postmodernism</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Learner+Engagement%22">Learner Engagement</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Instructional+Innovation%22">Instructional Innovation</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Teaching+Methods%22">Teaching Methods</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Student+Attitudes%22">Student Attitudes</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22World+Views%22">World Views</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Creativity%22">Creativity</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Individualized+Instruction%22">Individualized Instruction</searchLink> – Name: DOI Label: DOI Group: ID Data: 10.1080/09639284.2018.1471727 – Name: ISSN Label: ISSN Group: ISSN Data: 0963-9284 – Name: Abstract Label: Abstract Group: Ab Data: In order to engage students who have difficulty with the dominant world-view presented by accounting, or who have negative views of accounting, a different approach to teaching is required. We developed the concept of "pragmatic postmodernism" in the teaching of accounting to merge a postmodern teaching philosophy with the constraints and realities of teaching accounting. It represents an attempt to synthesise the individual learning needs of contemporary students who have difficulty accepting the dominant world-view of accounting with the constraints inherent in the resourcing, architecture and systems surrounding the teaching of accounting. The purpose of this research is to describe the thinking behind a pragmatic postmodern approach to the teaching of accounting. We provide examples of teaching approaches consistent with pragmatic postmodernism, that we have used successfully in our teaching to engage students who might otherwise be disengaged in their learning because of their rejection of the dominant world-view of accounting. In keeping with the philosophical underpinnings of postmodernism, we do not offer a magical panacea but an approach to thinking about teaching that seeks to prioritise the individual learning experience while remaining cognisant of the many constraints on the teaching of accounting. – Name: AbstractInfo Label: Abstractor Group: Ab Data: As Provided – Name: Ref Label: Number of References Group: RefInfo Data: 79 – Name: DateEntry Label: Entry Date Group: Date Data: 2019 – Name: AN Label: Accession Number Group: ID Data: EJ1207610 |
| PLink | https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=eric&AN=EJ1207610 |
| RecordInfo | BibRecord: BibEntity: Identifiers: – Type: doi Value: 10.1080/09639284.2018.1471727 Languages: – Text: English PhysicalDescription: Pagination: PageCount: 23 StartPage: 172 Subjects: – SubjectFull: Accounting Type: general – SubjectFull: Business Administration Education Type: general – SubjectFull: College Students Type: general – SubjectFull: Postmodernism Type: general – SubjectFull: Learner Engagement Type: general – SubjectFull: Instructional Innovation Type: general – SubjectFull: Teaching Methods Type: general – SubjectFull: Student Attitudes Type: general – SubjectFull: World Views Type: general – SubjectFull: Creativity Type: general – SubjectFull: Individualized Instruction Type: general Titles: – TitleFull: Pragmatic Postmodernism and Engagement through the Culture of Continuous Creativity Type: main BibRelationships: HasContributorRelationships: – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Miley, Frances – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Read, Andrew IsPartOfRelationships: – BibEntity: Dates: – D: 01 M: 01 Type: published Y: 2019 Identifiers: – Type: issn-print Value: 0963-9284 Numbering: – Type: volume Value: 28 – Type: issue Value: 2 Titles: – TitleFull: Accounting Education Type: main |
| ResultId | 1 |
