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Article A6.3
Research World: A Forum for Learning Through Unlearning
D. V. Ramana
Faculty Member, XIMB, India
ramana[at]ximb.ac.in
I am a teacher of accounting. As a branch of knowledge, accounting is dominated by its practitioners and regulators, more than researchers and academicians. Research in accounting in India is stagnating due to the lack of fresh ideas. Accounting researchers follow the discussions and deliberations of regulators and practitioners rather than questioning their practices and regulations. Therefore, I think that the following comment made more than 100 years ago is relevant for accounting researchers even today.
When the numerous and irrational rules shall cease to be resorted to by the ignorant, and discarded from the institutions of learning by the wise, then will bookkeeping [accounting] advance to a station among the first branches of necessary knowledge and be taught with the first. (Marsh, 1835, cited in Chambers, 1999)
Therefore, Research Training Seminars (RTS) became an important forum for me to participate in different forms of interaction--discussions, deliberations, and debates--with researchers with different experiences and experiments. It is a space where researchers get gifts of ideas from different areas of research.
The gaps in any discipline are generally visible at its edges. One of the ways to fill those gaps is by getting inputs from other disciplines through interactions with the researchers of other disciplines. Research World, which is the visible outcome of the Research Training Seminars, provides a vibrant platform for such inputs. During the current academic year, like in the past, we have had deliberations on a wide variety of topics: from spirituality to scams, from accounting to marketing, from technology to gender-related issues. The present volume of Research World is a mosaic of thoughts of different researchers.
My personal journey with the RTS started 5 years ago. I call this a journey of unlearning. Each unlearning led me to have a better grip on my understanding of research in general, and accounting research in particular.
I was taught that accounting is a process of converting business transactions into meaningful financial statements. My interactions with the researchers of other areas made me realise that, if the inputs are false, or imaginary, or hypothetical, the outputs cannot be factual and may be far from useful. Unfortunately, accounting practitioners and teachers generally do not question the inputs.
I was taught that accounting measures business transactions in financial units. However, I learnt through the inputs of other researchers that measuring is not just counting and it reduces diversity and discrimination. Accounting, as is practised and taught, creates more ambiguity and confusions.
I was taught that accounting provides a “true and fair” view of the business through its financial statements. However, discussions and deliberations with co-researchers gave me an insight on the term true. Researchers discuss the conventions, assumptions, and other antecedents that make something true, especially in changing circumstances. For accounting statements to be held as true and fair, there needs to be continuous examination of the antecedents that make them true and fair, particularly in changing circumstances.
I was taught that accounting is based on certain principles which are commonly known as Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and the students and practitioners have been following the GAAP for years. However, my interactions with the researchers in the RTS gave me the insight that the principles cannot be frozen for ever. They need constant questioning and modifications. Such questioning and re-interpretations will lead to refinement in the principles and practices. However, the accounting curriculum as currently followed at different levels of formal education fails to create such ability among the learners.
Several such learnings and unlearnings happened over the years through my participation in the RTS. I think, my understanding of accounting as a branch of knowledge has improved as a result. It helped me in identifying a number of gaps in the subject. It is apt to end the note by quoting Branford:
The onus or rather the privilege that rests upon the accountant is to exploit to the utmost, for the benefit of his own special work, the instruments of thought and action accumulated by all other workers, no matter in what field. (Branford, 1903, cited in Chambers, 1999)
RTS provided me with such a privilege.
Acknowledgement
I acknowledge the useful comments and feedback from Ms Krishnapriya, a co-participant in the Research Training Seminars.
Reference
Chambers, R. J. (1999). The poverty of accounting discourse. ABACUS: A Journal of Accounting, Finance and Business Studies, 35(3), 241-251.
Copyleft  The article may be used freely, for a noncommercial purpose, as long as the original source is properly acknowledged.
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