Abstract:

The issues of social responsibility and sustainable development (SR/SD), which have been getting developed in the accounting concept day by day, have also gained a significant interest in the accounting education. This paper investigates qualitative factors that may affect the learning of and attitudes towards SR/SD by using and improving the study of Gordon and Gelardi in 2005. In this paper, the affects of a single briefing about SR/SD given to the undergraduate students (n=146) are examined and investigated for its affects to the learning of SR/SD by using a matched pair responses. The survey responses are evaluated by t-statistics, factor analysis and multivariate analysis. This study is attempted to be the first study in the accounting education literature which examines the department that the student is involved from different classes, as well as, the factors (number of economic courses taken, number of accounting courses taken, gender and grade point average) previously examined in the study of Gordon and Gelardi (2005) for their possible affects to the learning of SR/SD. The positive conclusion is that exposure to SR/SD had a significant influence on the learning of and attitude towards SR/SD. In addition, the department that the student is involved, number of economic courses taken and number of accounting courses taken are found to be the factors that affect the learning of SR/SD. It is important for lecturers to understand the factors that may affect the learning and understanding of education during university level and professional level for their potential influence on assisting the preparation of education techniques.

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