Accounting Ethics Education Research: A Historical Review of the Literature

This study conducts a historical review of accounting ethics education literature over a forty-eight-year period from 1970 to 2018. It synthesizes accounting ethics education research published in academic research journals to identify trends and key themes. The study contributes to the body of accounting and education literature by giving meaning and shape to the development corpus of accounting ethics education research. Early research highlighted the need for ethics education in the accounting curriculum, while research in the latter part of the relevant period, moved toward understanding the impact of ethics education on students’ cognitive moral development and decision-making. Key topic themes inherent in the data include teaching methods, the importance of ethics education, ethical decision-making, moral development, the integration of ethics into accounting courses, and curriculum related issues. Alongside the rising number of publications during the relevant period, the findings suggest an increasing sophistication in teaching pedagogies and growing interest of ethics education research in developing countries. Overall, this study underlines the importance of ethics education research to the edification and ethics of future accountants.