Creating a history of accounting: a visual approach

Citation

Goosen-Botes, V. (2013), "Creating a history of accounting: a visual approach", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 26 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/aaaj.2013.05926daa.002

Creating a history of accounting: a visual approach

Article Type: Creating a history of accounting: a visual approach From: Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Volume 26, Issue 4

As a firm believer in the saying that you cannot know where you going to unless you know where you come from, I have always attempted to include the history of accounting in to all accounting course materials. In the process, I created a story, based on when and where Paccioli lived, and linked it to the double entry system. I call it my accountants’ easel, much to the amusement of my students.

While over the years there has been debate about the viewpoints from which this history should be recorded and exactly what the content of this history should be (for example Hammond and Sikka, 1996; Miller et al., 1991) there is no doubt that the importance of the historical understanding applies to accounting as much as to other fields of human endeavour (Carnegie and Napier, 2012, p. 329). Sy and Tinker (2006) argue the merits of Paccioli being depicted as the Father of Accounting and call it a Eurocentric ploy, where Western scholars use a technique (the double entry system) as synonymous with accountancy itself in order to allow science to be used to crown a Western White man as the Father of Accounting. In the Sy and Tinker (2006) article reference is made to Piltdown man, who for 40 years was seen as “the true progenitor of modern man” before he was exposed as fraudulent and today has been relegated to a comedy character. This reference made me question if this lot may ever befall Pacioli as history is constantly being written and rewritten?

The objective of this paper is to take up Bauman’s (2004) challenge to orthodox thinking about effective teaching, by emphasizing a more experimental role to teaching and one in which creative skills and abilities are increasingly in demand. It also takes up Kane’s (2005) challenge which says universities and other learning institutions need to become more serious about play. McWilliams (2008, p. 268) supports this when she says that if we are to succeed in capacity building for future challenges “we need to take play serious as a pedagogical tool”. Expanding on these ideas, Pink (2005) argues that future generations should not only have the ability to work in high technological environments, but will also require what he refers to as “high concept/ high touch” abilities. These abilities will assist in making the professional environment in which future generations will operate both functional and aesthetically pleasing. Pink (2005) defines “high concept” abilities as those which focus on creating artistic and emotional beauty, detecting patterns and opportunities, crafting a satisfying narrative and combing seemingly unrelated ideas into novel inventions.

Armed with the idea of “high/concept abilities” in teaching, the notion of Paccioli as a comedy character and having experienced the amusement my story of Pacioli and his easel caused among students, I decided to try and portray the story in comic book form.

Understanding the importance of play on education by reading the works of Alfred North Withehead (Caranfa, 2012) and knowing that Hurdle (2004) had established that there is a positive relationship between a course being interesting and fun and the material being learned being more valuable, I envisaged that a comic book in accounting may have some merit. My references to try and substantiate the merits of my endeavour were limited. Though a number of articles have experimented with the benefits of humour in teaching (Garner, 2006; Chiasson, 2002; Glenn, 2002; Pollio and Humphreys, 1996) few accounting articles have been written about this topic. Another obstacle encountered in my effort to create a comic book was that let alone comic books, even novels which feature accounting as the central theme are few and far between (Ministry, 2007).

After investigating how to write a comic (O’Neil, 2001) I embarked on preparing the script for the comic. Writing the script required an investigation into the history of Paccioli. (Gleeson White, 2011). Once the script had been completed, I created a story board to portray ideas of what I expected and enlisted the help of a graphic designer (Hamish Williams) to do the illustrations.

The result of this process is attached. The comic combines the history of accounting and how this can be used to illustrate the double entry system (Figures 1–7).

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6

Figure 7

Vida Goosen-BotesWaikato University, New Zealand