"Fractured Tales for Teaching Accounting: A Journey Through Three Worlds?"

This paper discusses the present educational trends in the Western World, and in particular Australia, that endanger the prospect of critical thought in accounting education. Such trends include the commodification of the student and education, reductions in government funding, and the emergence of Online education. We believe that economic pressure brought to bear on what accounting, and how accounting is taught, should be resisted to preserve the integrity of learning outcomes for students. This then leads us to reveal our struggle to learn/teach in a critical sense. The paper evaluates various pedagogical approaches, and their consequences for teaching and learning accounting. It is proposed there is a direct relationship between the effective teaching and learning of accounting, and the pedagogical framework chosen to enact that teaching and learning. Differing pedagogical frameworks embrace differing epistemological stances. The pedagogical framework chosen impacts significantly on real and valuable learning outcomes achieved. Accounting educators face an ethical imperative to competently educate critical thinking and technically competent professionals to serve society. Teaching and learning pedagogies are exam~for their ability to effectively teach difficult and abstract theoretical accounting concepts, and their ability to link this theory to its practical professional application. This is our response to the emerging trends facing the accounting educator.