Storytelling in the Accounting Classroom

Abstract

Under what conditions and in what situations is the telling of personal history and other stories an effective teaching tool? Storytelling has been used by many of the greatest teachers throughout history. Plato, Jesus and Gandi, used stories, parables and personal histories to educate students (Zabel 1991). In fact, storytelling has been referred to as the foundation of the teaching profession (Abrahamson 1998). In recent years, the use of storytelling has received attention from academic researchers and has been studied in several academic disciplines. It has been suggested that the use of storytelling in higher education settings increases student performance and recollection (Bryant & Harris 2011). However, few students have considered the potential for the use of storytelling in the accounting classroom. This archival research seeks to describe the value of storytelling as a pedagogical tool across academic disciplines, review the literature regarding the use of storytelling in other academic disciplines in higher education, synthesize the findings of existing research and describe the uses, benefits and difficulties with using storytelling in various accountancy classes across the curriculum, and suggest possible uses for storytelling in accountancy classes.