The Views of ‘Knowledge Gatekeepers’ About the Use and Content of Accounting Textbooks

This study examines financial accounting educators' views about, and use of, recommended course textbooks in the UK. In particular, this research explores the factors that influence the selection of a recommended text, the role it plays on the course, and educators' perceptions of the worldview that underpins their chosen text. Drawing on the results of a questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews with introductory financial accounting educators, this study draws attention to ideological issues concerning accounting textbooks. In particular, findings from this research suggest that a number of educators feel that their recommended textbooks should discuss the information needs of a broad range of stakeholders and supplement their text with materials that provide alternative perspectives or which draw attention to current issues in accounting. Moreover, a number of the participants indicated that their textbook had ideological characteristics in so far as they had an overly technical focus which ‘obscured’ the values that underpinned them.