Alas poor critical accounting, we knew him, Karl

This essay represents a reflection on some of the authors’ experiences and is an attempt to articulate the attitudes of many students, accountants and academics those that involved in critical accounting face daily. It is neither an attempt to cover all aspects of critical education, nor a complete exposition of the dominant managerialist paradigm. Rather, it is an attempt to engender debate amongst the participants of this conference, and to encourage critical academics to think about the considerable challenge they face in countering such attitudes. Thus, this intentionally provocative essay begins to explore these issues through the lens of a specific threat to critical accounting at an undergraduate level. In particular, changes within the university and the student population in Australia would appear to render it increasingly difficult to introduce and teach it effectively as a subject