From Awareness to Action: Operationalizing Accounting Ethics
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.60154/jaepp.2026.v27n1p60Keywords:
Accounting Ethics, Giving voice to value, assurance of learning, professional skepticism, moral reasoning, scoping reviewAbstract
Accounting programs operate under a recurring tension: AACSB outcomes and IFAC IES 4 require evidence of ethics learning, but curricular integration often lacks the instructional mechanisms to produce such evidence. This study examines a four-component instructional sequence, E⁴P (Exposure, Engagement, Enactment, and Partnership), and the assurance-of-learning artifacts it generates. The paper combines an integrative scoping review with a course-embedded pilot in Accounting Information Systems (n=121) to test a mechanism-aligned measurement suite comprising ethical sensitivity vignettes, DIT-style reasoning, the Hurtt skepticism scale, and a Giving Voice to Values (GVV) performance rubric. The instruments are organized through a Measurement and Scoring Framework that specifies constructs, scoring rubrics, mastery thresholds, and archivable artifacts suitable for assurance-of-learning review. Within the pilot setting, skepticism shifts modestly over a single term, while ethical sensitivity and GVV-rehearsed enactment show larger short-run gains. The paper interprets these patterns as within-student movement consistent with the E⁴P sequence, not as evidence of durable trait change or institution-wide effectiveness, and identifies the conditions under which such artifacts can support accreditation review across courses.
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