This paper provides an analysis of the typical modes of ideology in introductory financial accounting textbooks and training materials. Drawing on Thompson's (1990) schema concerning the typical linguistic modes through which ideology operates, this research suggests that the operation of ideology is apparent within educational accounting texts, with particular strategies being more evident than others: in particular, the strategies of universalization, narrativization, rationalization and naturalization. Given the predominantly technical nature of introductory financial accounting textbooks and training manuals, the modes of ideology identified in the texts were often quite subtle; more specifically, the ideological characteristics displayed in each of the six texts analysed were often expressions of implicit or taken-for-granted assumptions.

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This paper examines the financial performance of the FTSE 4 Good indices; the indices include companies from different geographical areas on the basis of pre-determined social responsibility criteria: currently environmental sustainability, relationships with stakeholders, attitudes to human rights, supply chain labour standards and the countering of bribery. The results indicate that over the period of analysis from 1996 to 2005 these indices outperformed their relevant benchmarks. However, most of this outperformance was due to risk differences between the FTSE 4 Good indices and their benchmarks. In addition, much of the outperformance arose in the period before the indices could be used by practitioners. Nevertheless, the results suggest that investors who invest in a portfolio of companies that satisfy FTSE 4 Good's corporate social responsibility criteria do no worse than their counterparts who do not follow a socially responsible strategy when purchasing equities.

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This article considers the impact of a student peer-mentoring programme (the Mentor Accountant Project, MAP) on first-year undergraduates' academic performance. The development of MAP was informed by reference to extant literature; it relies on the voluntary services of third-year students who then act as mentors to first-year student mentees in an undergraduate degree programme. The impact of MAP in two Scottish universities is measured by reference to the changes in the approaches to learning and the academic achievement of two groups of students: those who participated in MAP and those who did not. The findings indicate that those first-year students who participated in MAP did not experience the significant decline in their deep and strategic approaches to learning that their non-MAP peers did. Likewise, those first-year students who participated in MAP demonstrated a stronger academic performance in comparison to their non-MAP equivalents. In addition, the MAP scheme appeared to have little impact on the approaches to learning of the third-year participants; and the academic performance of the third-year MAP participants was indistinguishable from that of their non-MAP counterparts. The evidence suggests that participation in MAP is beneficial for first-year students.