Bridging the Educational Gap in Saudi Female Accounting Teaching Practices

Abstract

<p>The contemporary accountancy environment in Saudi Arabia (and globally) is dynamic, competitive, and characterised by ongoing developments in accounting practices and standards. Contributing to the current dynamism of the environment is the implementation of the Saudi Vision 2030 to diversify the national economy. This has led to a shift in business priorities and strategies and the need for companies to invest in new accounting systems and to adapt accounting practices in response to market changes. Moreover, a key objective of Vision 2030 is to increase Saudi women’s workforce participation and empowerment in the workplace. In this context, employers expect accounting education courses to adequately prepare accounting graduates with a level of job readiness that enables them to enter the professional accounting workplace successfully. Universities in Saudi Arabia are considered to have a key responsibility to prepare accounting students with both the technical and soft skills they need to work effectively in the accountancy environment. Evidence suggests; however, that accounting education programmes in Saudi universities can demonstrate limitations in their capacity to adequately prepare graduates to meet employer and sector requirements. This implies that there is both pressure on, and the scope for, Saudi universities to reform their accounting programmes to keep pace with changes in the contemporary accountancy context related to both domestic and international accountancy practices, advances in information technology use in accountancy practice, and Saudi women’s workforce participation.</p> <p>Any attempt to change or reform accounting education provision in Saudi Arabia must inevitably consider how accounting curricula are designed, and the teaching practices and strategies employed by accounting educators to prepare students for work in the accounting sector, particularly female accounting students. Indeed, the teaching methods of accounting educators understandably play a vital role in equipping Saudi female accounting students with the necessary knowledge and skills they require to thrive in the evolving accountancy landscape and business environment more broadly. Therefore, the aim of this study is to identify and examine the current gaps in accounting education provision to female students in public universities in the contexts of industry expectations and requirements and the Saudi Vision 2030 agenda. In particular, to access the views of key stakeholder groups – accounting educators, accounting students, and industry bodies – to answer two research questions: (1) How should the teaching practices in female accounting education be improved in Saudi Arabia? and (2) How and by whom should the suggested alterations be implemented?</p> <p>To analyses the stages of this study, several theoretical frameworks were employed to examine and understand the issues related to accounting education provision in Saudi Arabia, specifically concerning female accounting students. These theoretical frameworks include curriculum theory, instructional theory, and the normative theory of teaching.</p> <p>To investigate the research problem, a mixed methods study design was used. Specifically, semistructured interviews were conducted to collect qualitative data from 31 accounting educators drawn from seven public universities, as well as two members from the Saudi Organization for Certified Public Accountants (SOCPA) and two members from the Saudi National Commission for Academic Accreditation & Assessment (NCAAA). NVivo software was then used to conduct an inductive thematic analysis (content analysis) of the participants’ interview responses to identify the salient themes relevant to the research questions.</p> <p>In addition, a survey including variably Likert-scale choice options was administered to 200 female accounting students drawn from the same seven public universities for the collection of quantitative data. IBM SPSS 25 was then used to analyse the data. Descriptive statistics were generated of the frequencies at which the participants selected responses, the percentage outcomes for demographic data, and the weighted average and standard deviation for the study domains. The full data set was also divided into two sub-sets: students who received their accounting education instruction in English, and students who received their accounting education instruction in Arabic to analyse the differences in outcomes for each group. Statistical tests, specifically the Kruskal Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests, were used to examine the dispersion in respondents' answers. The primary objective was to discern the connection between respondents' answers and demographic variables. The analysis aimed to reveal whether demographic variables had a significant influence on the nature of the responses provided. In essence, these tests sought to determine if a statistical relationship existed between respondents' answers and their demographic characteristics. The results of these tests were used to gauge the strength and significance of this relationship.</p> <p>Regarding the teaching practices of educators in accounting education in Saudi Arabia, this study found the participating stakeholders reported four main challenges in teaching: lack of access to suitable teaching and learning materials (i.e., Arabic language and Saudi-context specific); rigid and often overly-complicated practices around accounting education provision emergent from the workplace culture; gender-related biases (in favour of men) related to decision making around curriculum implementation and workplace training opportunities; and lack of robust engagement of the accounting industry in accounting education provision. The findings of this study revealed the participants considered there were three main areas for improvement: introducing greater flexibility into the curriculum implementation process related to choices and uses of learning resources, access to more local case studies, and the use of more interactive and student-centred teaching methods; facilitating a higher level of involvement/engagement of the accounting profession in accounting education provision including the preparation and delivery of learning activities for students and workplace training opportunities; and providing female accounting educators with greater decision-making/freedom to reduce gender-biased power dynamics in universities. Regarding how and by whom the suggested improvements should be implemented, this study found the change mechanisms identified by participants included initiatives from educators regarding changes to teaching materials and methods of instruction; giving subject coordinators more authority to initiate changes or introduce new elements in the accounting course; relevant committees within accounting departments having a more active role in the professional development of educators to equip them with modern teaching methods and strategies; improving industry partnerships and cooperation with the profession; and better collaboration between SOCPA and the universities to bridge the gap between employers’ expectations and the job readiness of graduates.</p> <p>In conclusion, accounting education must be responsive to changes in the accountancy environment and the learning context to reflect modern accountancy best practices, changes in the learning preferences and styles of contemporary accounting students, and changes in the methods of instruction in accounting education courses in response to changing stakeholder expectations. The main implication drawn from the findings reported in this thesis is that the main role of accounting education in empowering future female accounting students is through the provision of relevant and complimentary classroom learning and workplace training experience to ensure they have the knowledge, skills and confidence to manage real-world accounting tasks and practices and achieve related objectives of the Saudi Vision 2030.</p>