More than Accounting, Learning to Be More…

By Susan V. Crosson,
Santa Fe Community College,
Gainesville, FL

The brief definition of accounting has been that accounting is the language of business. As educators of beginning accounting courses we have focused on this communication aspect—the rules (GAAP, IRS) and reporting of financial and managerial information from either the preparer and/or user perspective. As the result of our efforts, our students became accounting literate.

The Future of Accounting Education
Over the past 11 years the message from various accounting organizations has been consistent, either the accounting profession must transform itself into becoming more than traditional accountants or the profession will die. Now the American Accounting Association, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Institute of Management Accountants, Arthur Andersen, Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young, KPMG, and PricewaterhouseCoopers have issued a challenge (http://aaahq.org/pubs/AESv16/toc.htm) to accounting educators to improve accounting education or else, we too, will not survive.

Accounting’s Core Competencies
The accounting profession is broadening its core. If you have reviewed the AICPA’s “Core Competency Framework for Entry Into the Accounting Profession,” you know there are three core competency perspectives that students should learn from our classes: functional, personal, and broad business. Briefly stated the core includes the following:

• Functional Perspective: The AICPA’s functional core includes measurement and reporting, what our beginning courses have traditionally stressed. But it also requires students to become knowledgeable about decision modeling, risk analysis, research, and technology—topics generally not reinforced in beginning courses.
• Personal Perspective: Gaining competence in professional demeanor, problem solving and decision making, interaction, leadership, communication, project management, and knowing how to leverage technology skills are emphasized by the AICPA as important aspects of students’ educational development. Since beginning accounting courses are already content packed, effectively integrating meaningful student experiences remains a challenge for faculty of beginning courses.
• Broad Business Perspective: The broad business perspective recognizes that accounting must be sensitive to multiple user perspectives and values. Courses should encourage students to understand industry/sector, international/global, legal/regulatory, marketing/client, resource management, and technology perspectives and be able to demonstrate strategic/critical thinking about them. This is a much broader scope than our beginning courses focus on, which is primarily the financial and/or managerial aspects of accounting.

What Does All this Mean for Faculty Teaching the Beginning Accounting Courses? The knowledge, skills, abilities, attitudes, and values accounting faculty are to teach our students is overwhelming. While the teaching and learning of the entire core is the objective of a well-planned accounting curriculum, what does this mean to the first courses in accounting? What follows are my own, evolving impressions. They are in need of thoughtful review by peers. So, dialogue please!

Information Architects
As the first, and many times only, accounting courses business professionals require, our courses are the lasting impressions the business world has of accounting. Many times it is the only opportunity we have to shape the perceived value we add to the business community.

Traditionally we have focused on accounting literacy. In other words, if we were in the construction industry, we taught our accounting students to become good building contractors (preparers of accounting information), building inspectors (GAAP and IRS code enforcers/auditors), or homeowners (users of accounting information). These are all worthy aspects of accounting, but neither as broad nor as value enhancing as the current accounting vision expressed through the core competencies.

Personally, I like to think that the evolving goal of accounting education and the beginning accounting courses is to encourage our students to see accountants as information architects. In other words, students during their accounting courses must learn, understand, and practice how to design and coordinate business systems that address all users need, within the constraints of the business environment, using the accounting rules and available information technology to effectively and easily communicate via paper and electronic means. Just as an architect assembles and communicates the action plan for the team of talented construction professionals, so does the accountant add value to the coordination and understanding of business organizations. Accounting is the glue that bonds business teams together and brings meaning to its information. The accountant is the architect of business information and knowledge.

If beginning accounting courses were to focus on accountants as information architects, then our preparer-centered and/or user-centered teaching focus would converge into a business information literacy focus. When the outcome of the first accounting courses make this shift from accounting literacy to business information literacy, then what our beginning courses should emphasize becomes clearer with respect to the AICPA’s core competencies. The functional core competencies will push us to revamp our curriculum and course content. Personal competencies will impact how we teach our courses and blend technology into them. Since the broad business perspective defines to whom the profession is ultimately accountable, it will mandate that we enable our students to communicate effectively with all stakeholders. As to the specifics of these changes on your campus, they will come after thoughtful conversations with our business community, faculty colleagues, and students. Quite an opportunity to make a difference! How will you improve accounting education in the beginning courses?