Barriers to Accounting Research in Higher Education Journal Page 58 Barriers to Accounting as a Career Choice for African-American Students

While the AICPA and accounting firms have recognized that an ethnically diverse profession is better able to serve its clients, diversity gains have been meager over the last 35 years. Career choices made by African-American students may cause this trend. The current study uses social cognitive career theory as a framework to set forth propositions for why traditional recruiting of African-American students may not be successful. Research on factors that hinder African Americans ’ entrance into the profession will promote addressing those specific barriers in diversity efforts. This paper makes several suggestions for research to advance this goal