Exploring the Content Knowledge of Accounting Teachers in Rural Contexts: A Call for a Decoloniality Approach

Abstract

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.

Professional Curriculum Practice of Economic and Management Sciences Teachers: A Case of Financial Literacy Teaching

“…The authors argue that professional teacher qualifications are not taken into consideration when subject allocation is done in schools. Molise [24] indicates that teachers find themselves teaching subjects that they never studied or specialized in. In the case of financial literacy teaching, teachers have problems, because they are not trained as accounting teachers.…”

“…The success of any PCP depends on the type of university training that teachers received. Adequate subject content knowledge is a prerequisite for EMS teaching practice [24]. A teacher is an interpreter and transformer of subject content knowledge, to facilitate learners' learning [12].…”

Pengaruh Kemampuan Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (Tpack) Terhadap Kesiapan Menjadi Guru

“…Berdasarkan penjelasan latar belakang menunjukkan bahwa penelitian terdahulu mengenai kemampuan TPACK terhadap kesiapan menjadi guru menunjukkan hasil yang belum konsisten (Graham et al, 2019;Molise, 2020;Petko et al, 2018;Pratama et al, 2015;Sari, 2019;Shinas et al, 2015;Susanti et al, 2020;Tondeur et al, 2017). Hal ini dikarenakan terdapat perbedaan pada karakteristik responden dan latar belakang objek penelitian.…”

“…Hasil penelitian ini sesuai dengan penelitian terdahulu yang diperoleh hasil bahwa terdapat pengaruh pengetahuan bidang akuntansi terhadap kesiapan menjadi guru (Molise, 2020;Norton, 2019;Pratama et al, 2015). Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa pengetahuan bidang akuntansi mahasiswa masih rendah sama seperti penelitian Bailie, (2017); Norton (2019) yang mengatakan hasil pengetahuan bidang akuntansi mahasiswa rendah.…”

“…Hasil tersebut berarti calon guru belum memahami akuntansi secara keseluruhan (Norton, 2019). Pengetahuan bidang akuntansi yang rendah dapat mempengaruhi kinerja guru (Molise, 2020). Untuk itu calon guru akuntansi harus menguasai kompetensi dasar dari bidang akuntansi yang akan diajarkan agar menghasilkan kinerja baik saat menjadi guru (Mutiani et al, 2021).…”