ABSTRACT: The post-Enron era shares an important similarity with previous time periods following high-profile ethical lapses: post-Enron, there have been clear calls for educators to increase ethics instruction provided to students majoring in accounting (e.g., Mintz 2007; National Association of State Boards of Accountancy [NASBA] 2005, 2007). Educators' response to the calls—present and past—has been generally limited and has been attributed, in large measure, to three challenges accounting educators (including us) have faced: (1) a lack of space in the curriculum, (2) inadequate instructional resources, and (3) faculty members' discomfort in teaching ethics due to a lack of formal training (Blanthorne et al. 2007; Mintz 1990).
In light of the calls for educators to increase ethics instruction provided to students majoring in accounting, it is incumbent on faculty to help each other overcome these hurdles. In this paper, we endeavor to do so by drawing upon insights gleaned from the philosophy, ethics, accounting ethics, and education literatures to describe not only why, but more importantly, how we designed an accounting ethics course. Additionally, we provide an overview of our course and append our syllabus to assist faculty members who are interested in adopting (or adapting) our course. Finally, we include assessment measures that evidence the success of our course and offer concluding comments.
Applying the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm to the Creation of an Accounting Ethics Course