'Economic value added' as ideology through a critical lens: towards a pedagogy for management fashion?

This paper reviews several approaches to the teaching of a fashionable, accounting-related instrument of management: the indicator known as ‘economic value added’. A critical pedagogic orientation is recommended. Such an orientation is argued to facilitate the important objective of moving beyond merely teaching about technical matters to a form of teaching which recognizes and responds to the subtle, yet important influences of dominant social paradigms. Examples are provided of how such a critical approach might be implemented.