Sharing responsibility for teaching and learning accounting

The Language for Professional Communication in Accounting project has been evolving since late 2002, and addresses the teaching and learning of generic graduate attributes in postgraduate accounting education at Macquarie University. The project is the outcome of a collaborative working relationship between staff on the Master of Accounting program and staff from National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research. In late 2004, funding was secured to evaluate and enhance the quality of teaching and learning within this project. As part of this evaluation, teachers and learners will be interviewed in early 2005 on their conceptions of the role and value of generic graduate attributes in postgraduate accounting education, and how they make use of these in teaching or learning accounting. Likewise, employers will be interviewed about the nature of work undertaken by graduates, and their expectations of graduates in relation to the skills required in the workplace. This paper will report on some preliminary findings from these interviews, focusing on teachers' and learners' understandings of the relationship between these attributes, discipline content and professional practice. Some consideration will be given to how this information might be used to draw learners and teachers within the Master of Accounting program further into a learning community characterised by shared understandings of what it means to be an accountant and shared responsibility for teaching and learning accounting.