Using collaboration for curriculum change in accounting higher education

Abstract

This qualitative, descriptive case study researched the collaborative curriculum development process in accounting higher education. This study was needed because accounting education, as a professional program, needs to be continually reviewed and updated in order to keep abreast of changes in the business field. This content is developed through the curriculum development process. Yet education has seen hiring freezes and budget cuts, thus there is a shortage of money and personnel for revising or developing needed accounting programs in response to these changes, and one way to meet these shortages is for educational institutions to collaborate. While there were studies about collaboration and studies of curriculum development, there were no studies that combined both within the environment of accounting higher education. The research question was `What does it mean to participate in the accounting curriculum development process in a collaborative environment?' The study sought to better understand how said process functions in a collaborative environment by studying four cases where that process was undertaken in three post-secondary educational institutions. From document analysis and participant interviews, the data were analyzed and six themes were discussed: recognizing the role of a driver of the collaboration, recognizing the expertise of other participants, having ongoing communication between the participants, forming partnerships by managing participants' expectations, doing the necessary research ahead of time, and having additional education of students and teachers who were going to be in the shared courses. In some cases, the collaboration resulted in shared courses which increased students' exposure to professional's expert knowledge, to students with backgrounds other than accounting, and to different career possibilities. The collaborations also exposed issues, such as the differences of opinions by instructors of shared courses when it came to what was taught in the classroom and the need of having more than one driver of the collaboration. By examining these cases, results can then be disseminated to others searching for assistance in implementing their own collaborative curriculum development process. Because the more we know about using collaboration for curriculum change in accounting higher education, the better we can plan for it in the future.