ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the history of education in relation to accounting, from medieval to recent times. The geographical context of England and Scotland provides the focal point of the review, but themes relevant to those researching the subject across the globe are identified. The chapter begins by exploring key themes and pedagogic practices during the pre-modern era of formal education. There the formative practices of licence and qualification, and open-ended knowledge systems are discerned, as are the spaces for alleged dichotomies between theory and practice, usefulness and subtlety, and academic and practitioner, which remain with us today. The discussion proceeds to consider works on the accounting profession in the modern age and the changes that ensue once accounting education per se has to find an institutional base, the pressures for an academic treatment of the subject gather momentum and accounting becomes increasingly widespread as a practice. The themes of examination form, content, location of study and relevance are used to review the relevant literature on the fragmented UK profession. Consideration is also given to what a more comprehensive history of accounting education might look like.
