Exploring the Content Knowledge of Accounting Teachers in Rural Contexts: A Call for a Decoloniality Approach
Keywords:
Accounting education; Accounting teachers; Content knowledge; Competence; Decoloniality approachAbstract
The purpose of this paper was to investigate deficiencies in the teaching and learning of financial literacy, which is the accounting part of the subject economic and management sciences in Grade 9 in South Africa. The content knowledge of Grade 9 accounting teachers at rural schools compared to those at urban schools, remains a challenge, as many of the former lack qualifications. Teachers at rural schools are considered to have inadequate content knowledge of accounting, owing to a lack of training and continuous professional development. The sample comprised 89 Grade 9 teachers. The study used secondary data that was collected with a questionnaire on different accounting topics to diagnose the difficulties teachers experience teaching accounting content. The items of the questionnaire were clustered into three constructs: analysis and recording of transactions on the accounting equation, understanding accounting concepts and connections between topics and application of accounting principles, and analysis of transactions in subsidiary journals. The results show that there are deficiencies relating to teachers' content knowledge and competence. This finding suggests that teachers in rural areas should undergo professional development to prepare them to teach learners at rural schools. This development should include establishing professional learning communities for sharing scarce instructional resources between various schools.
https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.19.8.24
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