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In this paper I provide a brief review and analysis of the primary external criticisms over the last century of accounting education and selected responses by accounting professionals and academics. My objective is to demonstrate the constancy of criticism and the failure of any criticism to effect meaningful change in the delivery of accounting courses. The scandals of the late 19th century opened university doors for accountancy. I begin by examining the profession's earliest vision for accounting education and position that vision within the Progressive reform movement. For more than a century, there has been a consensus that technical knowledge is totally inadequate as the basis of accounting education, but the accounting curriculum continues to have a decidedly technical orientation. One of the themes that emerges from this historical overview is the consistency with which those calling for reform—practitioners and academicians—have repeated this message and how little effect it has had. From a historical perspective, two interesting questions arise: Why did accounting curricula become increasingly technical throughout the 20th century, despite repeated calls for change? What has rendered accountants' social obligation oblique, if not obliterated, in most of our accounting courses?

Neoliberalism has been called "the defining political economic paradigm of our lives; it refers to the policies and processes by which a relative handful of private interest is permitted to control as much as possible of social life." (McChesney, 1998) Neoliberalism has been the based of what John Williamson (1990) labeled the "Washington Consensus (WC)." The WC reflects development strategies that focus on liberalization and privatization. Stiglitz (1998) notes the WC results in "policies predicated upon a strong faith-stronger than warranted -in unfettered markets aimed at reducing or even minimizing the role of government." Anglo American financial reporting plays a critical role in implementing WC policies. The WC privileges ownership interests the concept of shareholder value dominates financial reporting. Therefore, maximization of shareholder value becomes the key goal. Neoliberalism provides the philosophic base for the WC and provides the framework for this paper. ; İstanbul Ticaret Üniversitesi

This paper examines historical methodology and suggests ways accounting history may be made more relevant to contemporary accounting researchers. First there is a brief discussion of the "traditional" accounting history method, the documentary model, and an examination of history methodologies that offer alternatives modes of inquiry. This includes the pattern model and rhetorical analysis. This discussion is brief and focused on only issues examined in subsequent discussion of the empirical research. The discussion of the empirical research, including behavioral research, focuses on three issues: retrodiction, with examples concerning securities legislation; belief transference, with examples concerning the demand for auditing; and methodological transference, with examples from the behavioral literature including a discussion of the importance of historical context and sensitivity. The objectives are [1] to show how all researchers need to tell more plausible stories and how historical analyses can clarify and enhance understanding of the complex environment in which accountants function, [2] to suggest fruitful areas for future accounting historical/empirical/behavioral research and [3] to issue a call for diversity, tolerance, and a free exchange of ideas—stressing these as values that cannot be separated from accountants' research activity.