title: Accounting scandals, ethical dilemmas and educational challenges

authors: Low, Mary

subjects: accounting scandal

abstract: Publicity over the role of accountants often accompanies major corporate collapses. It is argued that recent corporate scandals have set a new low for the accounting profession. It is, after all, the accountants who have assisted in financial management, prepared financial statements and audited these statements. As a corollary to this, it can be argued that accountants play a significant role in good corporate governance and ethical sustainable business practices. Increasingly there are calls for greater transparency and corporate governance as well as increased adoption of professional and ethical practices by businesses. Is this possible given our inherently materialistic nature of accumulating wealth? The question must therefore be asked, if new or additional legislation would not work, what will? It has also been argued that poor quality professional education is one of the problems contributing to these scandals. This paper identifies and explores five factors that seemingly influences and contributes to the perpetuation of accounting and corporate scandals because of their impact on ethical behaviour. Also discussed in this paper is the debate related to the inadequacy of university curricula particularly with regard to the influence of ethics education on accounting graduates. To investigate further these issues, we surveyed students to ascertain whether they believe education can influence ethical behaviour. The findings from the surveys could not conclusively indicate that students perceived ethics education to have a significant influence on their ethical behaviour but nonetheless they believed that it was still important to have ethics education in their programme of study. This finding, in itself, suggests that it is still possible to influence the ‘thinking’ of accounting graduates before they entered the complex world of business.

text: Accounting scandals, ethical dilemmas and educational challenges Publicity over the role of accountants often accompanies major corporate collapses. It is argued that recent corporate scandals have set a new low for the accounting profession. It is, after all, the accountants who have assisted in financial management, prepared financial statements and audited these statements. As a corollary to this, it can be argued that accountants play a significant role in good corporate governance and ethical sustainable business practices. Increasingly there are calls for greater transparency and corporate governance as well as increased adoption of professional and ethical practices by businesses. Is this possible given our inherently materialistic nature of accumulating wealth? The question must therefore be asked, if new or additional legislation would not work, what will? It has also been argued that poor quality professional education is one of the problems contributing to these scandals. This paper identifies and explores five factors that seemingly influences and contributes to the perpetuation of accounting and corporate scandals because of their impact on ethical behaviour. Also discussed in this paper is the debate related to the inadequacy of university curricula particularly with regard to the influence of ethics education on accounting graduates. To investigate further these issues, we surveyed students to ascertain whether they believe education can influence ethical behaviour. The findings from the surveys could not conclusively indicate that students perceived ethics education to have a significant influence on their ethical behaviour but nonetheless they believed that it was still important to have ethics education in their programme of study. This finding, in itself, suggests that it is still possible to influence the ‘thinking’ of accounting graduates before they entered the complex world of business.

year: 2007

title: Exploring children's perspectives: Multiple ways of seeing and knowing the child.

authors: Peters, Sally

subjects: young children

abstract: This article focuses on human development in the early years, and the challenges for teachers and researchers in seeking to explore young children's perspectives. The current interest in listening to children's voices sits within competing developmental discourses about infants, toddlers and young children, which emphasise both their capability and confidence as well as their immaturity, especially with regard to oral language. Their "voice" can be heard and seen differently by teachers, researchers and families, who filter it according to their own perspectives and their image of the child. Drawing on a range of contemporary New Zealand studies, we discuss some key issues such as whether children need speech to have a voice? And in what ways can we gather children's perspectives in research and education? To explore children's perspectives and hear their voices requires skilled and flexible researchers and teachers, who watch and listen carefully whilst being mindful of their filtering/interpretive gazes. This takes time and patience and requires multiple ways of gathering data in order that the child is heard authentically.

text: Exploring children's perspectives: Multiple ways of seeing and knowing the child. This article focuses on human development in the early years, and the challenges for teachers and researchers in seeking to explore young children's perspectives. The current interest in listening to children's voices sits within competing developmental discourses about infants, toddlers and young children, which emphasise both their capability and confidence as well as their immaturity, especially with regard to oral language. Their "voice" can be heard and seen differently by teachers, researchers and families, who filter it according to their own perspectives and their image of the child. Drawing on a range of contemporary New Zealand studies, we discuss some key issues such as whether children need speech to have a voice? And in what ways can we gather children's perspectives in research and education? To explore children's perspectives and hear their voices requires skilled and flexible researchers and teachers, who watch and listen carefully whilst being mindful of their filtering/interpretive gazes. This takes time and patience and requires multiple ways of gathering data in order that the child is heard authentically.

year: 2011

title: Genre and authentic written discourse in Maori and their relevance to the education of students in upper secondary and tertiary Maori-medium educational settings

authors: Houia-Roberts, Ngaere

subjects: Māori medium education

abstract: I report here on part of a research project whose primary aim was to investigate a range of authentic Māori texts in terms of the search for commonly occurring organisational and cognitive patterns, and to consider the pedagogic implications of this investigation in terms of the teaching of writing skills in Māori-medium educational settings. An examination of a range of text segments written by educated and highly proficient users of Māori suggests that, in terms of textual relationships, there are characteristic patterns of organisation that characterise the three genres that appear to be most commonly required of student writers in Māori-medium upper secondary and tertiary educational contexts, that is, the genres of arguing, explaining and describing. Another part of the project – an examination of whole texts in terms of overall, structuring – is reported in the next issue of this journal.

text: Genre and authentic written discourse in Maori and their relevance to the education of students in upper secondary and tertiary Maori-medium educational settings I report here on part of a research project whose primary aim was to investigate a range of authentic Māori texts in terms of the search for commonly occurring organisational and cognitive patterns, and to consider the pedagogic implications of this investigation in terms of the teaching of writing skills in Māori-medium educational settings. An examination of a range of text segments written by educated and highly proficient users of Māori suggests that, in terms of textual relationships, there are characteristic patterns of organisation that characterise the three genres that appear to be most commonly required of student writers in Māori-medium upper secondary and tertiary educational contexts, that is, the genres of arguing, explaining and describing. Another part of the project – an examination of whole texts in terms of overall, structuring – is reported in the next issue of this journal.

year: 2003-09