ERIC Number: EJ1409875
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024
Pages: 25
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0963-9284
EISSN: EISSN-1468-4489
Threshold Concepts and ESG Performance: Teaching Accounting Students Reconceptualized Fundamentals to Drive Future ESG Advocacy
Norman T. Sheehan; Kenneth A. Fox; Mark Klassen; Ganesh Vaidyanathan
Accounting Education, v33 n1 p84-108 2024
Whether corporations voluntarily reduce their negative impacts on the environment and society depends upon management advocacy. As future corporate leaders, accounting students will have a critical advocacy role, but they have been taught that shareholder value should not be sacrificed to reduce the externalized environmental and social costs caused by corporations. We believe accounting students are unable to break through the shareholder value maximization doctrine without understanding threshold concepts of corporate externalized costs and revised conceptualizations of corporate ownership and corporate governance. This paper proposes a new Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Learning Model that accounting instructors can employ to understand the threshold concepts. Threshold concepts are reconstitutive and fundamentally change students' worldviews so that new understandings may emerge and advocating for ESG initiatives becomes possible. The paper concludes with instructional strategies aligned with three pedagogical modalities to help students absorb the ESG threshold concepts.
Descriptors: Accounting, Advocacy, Teaching Methods, Corporations, Social Responsibility, Models, Governance, Professional Education, Concept Formation, Conservation (Environment), Undergraduate Students
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A