Developing creative accountants: opening up the accounting curriculum through reflective practice

The market in which accounting and business professionals currently operate within is becoming increasingly complex. Such a changing, complex and integrated environment demands a holistic conceptualisation of the accounting profession, where accountants need to be able to think about the business environment in diverse and integrated ways, which adopt a transdisciplinary approach. In order to develop an integrated perspective, accounting higher education programs need to be designed in a way that focus on the developmental process of a professional accountant, within adopted pedagogical frameworks. This chapter presents a case study on an innovative redesign of an accounting capstone unit that embeds reflective practice as the core element within its curricula design. By placing an emphasis on a contextual appreciation of accounting amongst graduates, students are able to visualise the role accounting plays within their own lives, professional organisations and society more broadly. In developing and building a capacity to reflect amongst both learners and academic staff a critical and reflective culture is being created that enables for a deeper understanding of the ‘ways of thinking’ as an accounting professional to develop amongst accounting graduates.