A comparative study of the curriculum content of the senior secondary accounting subject in Macau and New Zealand

Abstract

Accounting is a business language which has been gradually becoming more standardised in recent years. Theoretically, accounting curriculum content at high school level should be exactly the same in each country. However, the reality is that there are some differences between each jurisdiction’s accounting curriculum statements. This dissertation therefore draws comparative analyses, using content analysis, on the similarities and differences between New Zealand’s accounting curriculum for senior secondary education and the accounting curriculum statements published by the Edexcel examination board that are currently used by mainstream grammar schools in Macau. The reason for choosing the UK curriculum for the Macau context is that it is the most popular qualification that Macau schools choose for overseas university admission. The analyses pay attention to different perspectives, such as curriculum ideology (i.e. what is the purpose of accounting curriculum in society?), the degree of integration with business management (this aims to ascertain whether each accounting curriculum statement considers the subject as an independent subject or an integral part of business management), the degree of integration into the local context (this aims to determine whether local factors have been taken into account during the design process to assess whether the curriculum serves local demands) and lastly, how content knowledge is organised (i.e. is it in the linear or spiral form?).

Document analysis is the research methodology chosen for this study. This methodology is regarded as useful and appropriate in this context because this research requires examination of the similarities and differences between official curriculum content of two jurisdictions. Then detailed examination of official curriculum statements and correspondence between the government and relevant stakeholders (such as university, teachers association, etc.) is considered vital. Qualitative content analysis is chosen for analysing documents because unlike quantitative content analysis, it does not focus on testing hypotheses through counting number of words or phrases.. Furthermore, the study involves the author’s personal interpretation of documents.

In terms of findings, there are some similarities and differences:

Both jurisdictions have a lot of common accounting knowledge since accounting is an international business language. Furthermore, spiral curriculum has been applied to both curricula to different degrees.

In terms of differences, the first difference is that New Zealand’s accounting programme does not only aim at equipping students with business accounting knowledge (which is the only aim of the Edexcel accounting programme); it also aims at solving some social problems such as poor personal financial management. The second difference is that New Zealand chooses a more ‘breadth’ approach for the selection of curriculum content and sees accounting as an integral part of business operation. In contrast, the Edexcel qualification sees accounting as a more ‘isolated’ discipline; therefore it focuses more on ‘in-depth’ accounting knowledge. The third difference is that New Zealand incorporates local business laws and regulations when developing curriculum content but Macau does not due to its different education context and history. The fourth difference is that New Zealand develops accounting curriculum content according to specific learning outcomes but the Edexcel qualification structures the knowledge by topic.