Accounting education and neocolonialism in Pakistan: A Gramscian perspective

Abstract

Research has shown how accounting is an important tool in the weaponry of colonial and neocolonial powers. However, less is known on how accounting education can be a means to ensure the silent reproduction of Western values and priorities. This study explores the relationship between current arrangements in university accounting education in Pakistan and neocolonialism. The paper is based on interviews with the three main categories of actors who have an impact on higher education, namely accounting policymakers, educators and students, and adopts Gramsci's understanding of hegemony and the role of intellectuals in society. Policymakers, who enjoy strong ties with large multinational corporations, through accreditation mechanisms influence the meanings and content of accounting education, which educators then transmit to students, thereby altering their ‘common sense’. Consistently, many students are influenced by beliefs such as the primacy of the West and its ‘neutral’ practices and the need to embrace internationalisation. Nevertheless, others refuse such taken for granted assumptions and act as potential ‘organic intellectuals’, who may fuel the creation of new understandings around the role and content of accounting education in developing countries.