ABSTRACT
Contemporary accounting education systems do not seem to have lived up to the expectations of growing societal needs and hence accounting graduates who one day become professional accountants are unprepared to face urgent and emerging sustainability challenges. This calls for a more proactive role for accounting education with major revisions aimed at sustainability. Although environmentalists and educators have made use of some religious teachings regarding the human-nature relationships, Theravada Buddhism has not been adequately discussed. Gunarathne and Rajasooriya discuss the extent to which the first and only sustainability management accounting course in a public university established by a Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka reflects Theravada Sinhalese Buddhist ways of thinking in enhancing the immediate and long-term pathways to sustainability-conscious living. They argue that due to the high professional orientation of the degree program and the nature of the accounting discipline, the design of this course has been primarily driven by Western ethics in catering to the needs of the market place while the course delivery has facilitated a broader discussion and reflective learning opportunities for the students with reference to some of the concepts in Theravada Buddhism. The authors also provide some directions for reforms in accounting education to progress towards education for sustainability.
