Giving Voice to Problematic Silences that Limit Demographic and Ideological Diversity in Accounting Education

Abstract

ABSTRACT Conventional accounting pedagogies, certification structures, and publishing protocols are infused with biases that limit the parameters of discourse. Hirschauer’s (2006) ‘silence of the social’ and Bailey’s (2006) three characteristics of implicit religion—personal commitment, integrating foci, and intensive concerns with extensive effects—are used to give voice to structural elements in accounting pedagogy, certification programs, and publishing regimes that discourage ideological and demographic diversity. The author provides examples of how one might modify management accounting classes to (1) address demographic and ideological biases in conventional curriculum materials and (2) encourage critical thinking about issues that have do not have the objective answers favored within assurance of learning programs and certification exams. The paper concludes with seven suggestions for additional research and conversations that are needed to better understand and address indirect mechanisms that quietly perpetuate the profession’s problematic track record on diversity and inclusion.