THE INDONESIAN JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTING RESEARCH

Vol. 12, No. 3, September 2009

Page 255-270

Implementation of Refined Hyperview of Learning (rHOL) on

Management Accounting Learning Process
(An Extended Ethnographic Study)
ARI KAMAYANTI*
STIE Mahardhika Surabaya
AJI DEDI MULAWARMAN**
Brawijaya University

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence on the implementation of Love-Based
Accounting Education (LBAE) through refined Hyperview of Learning (rHOL) as the core of humanity
learning process. The essence of rHOL is a purification process. We show the impact of rHOL on
learning process by suiting faith towards God to free accounting education from secularism and
corporate hegemony. Utilizing extended ethnography by phenomenology, we portray the implication of
rHOL on accounting students’ learning conceptions on three management accounting topics: Activity-
Based Costing, Total Quality Management, and Balanced Score Card. We name this method as
exethnography. We argue that these three topics are secular and their existences are merely to support
corporate hegemony. The presence of secularism and corporate hegemony has caused the abandonment
of local values and local needs respectively. Educators play an important role in implementing rHOL
since he/she must trigger and maintain the purification process throughout the learning process. The
results are astonishing since there are shifts in students’ consciousness in three varying degrees
(verstehen, critical, reconstruction/deconstruction). As a result of rHOL implementation, both the
educator and the students were seen enlightened. They renew their consciousness and return to local
values and local needs.

Keywords: LBAE, rHOL, Purification, ABC, TQM, BSC, Ethnography, Phenomenology,

Exethnography

1. Introduction

Despite the staggering efforts to improve accounting curriculum, the state of accounting

education in Indonesia is in status quo. Change is often difficult and the lack of discussion about

teaching and curriculum is a significant barrier to change for many accounting educator

(Ainsworth, 2001). Davidson and Baldwin (2005) research findings suggest that reliance on

accounting textbooks in accounting education practices in the US is 100%. Accounting education

process in Indonesia is also still textbook based and adopts the western education system. This

phenomenon is reflected at a gathering at STIE Perbanas Surabaya in 30-31 August 2007 by IAI-

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KAPd with the grand theme of Curriculum Development and Innovative Learning Strategy in

Accounting for High Education. It could be seen that University of Sebelas Maret Surakarta,

University of Indonesia, Politeknik Negeri Malang, and University of Gajah Mada that presented

Management Accounting course, use similar textbooks such as Hansen and Mowen’s

Management Accounting, Nagy’s Principles of Cost Accounting and Blocher’s Cost

Management.

Hence, Management accounting courses in most universities in Indonesia are still based

on the Western accounting text-books. It seems that Indonesia has proudly adopted an education

system regardless of its held-values. To show our point, for example, accounting education in the

US, as stated in its revised purpose written, in AICPA Core Competency Framework, has shifted

from a content-driven to a skills-driven curriculum (Ainsworth, 2001). However, no single item

in our skill-driven curriculum points out faith towards God, Taqwa1, and morals as delivered in

Government regulations such as UU Sisdiknas UUD 19452. Hence, we believe that our education

system, especially accounting education has gone astray from the commendable values proposed

by Indonesia’s founding fathers.

This condition could be regarded as secularization. Secularization takes place when the

spirit of self-liberation from mythologies causes agnosticism in God. This is the spirit from the

west that knowledge would advance only if one could free oneself from religion (Kuntowijoyo,

1999: 160-161). Beaver agreed (1987) that the problems of accounting education hinged on

secularism; that there is a “long-standing and highly cherished tradition of separation of church

1
Taqwa is an Arabic term that is commonly defined as “God-consciousness.” That is seeking those things that lead to God’s
pleasure and love, while avoiding those things that may lead to His displeasure. (www.taqwaecofood.org)
2
2 Par 31, verse 3: “government strives and executes a national education system, that would increase faith, taqwa and
morals…” verse 5: “government advance knowledge and technology by holding high religion values and nation’s unity for
civilization progress and human’s welfare.”

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and state”. Hence, accounting education has become a focal point as it produces future

accountants.

Unfortunately, not only secularism but also corporate hegemony over accountants and

accounting are reflected in our accounting education culture specifically in management

accounting courses. The purpose of management accounting is to assist management in devising

plans for rational economic purposes and to make rational decisions (Ahmad, 2007: 5) to

improve productivity, decrease costs, broaden marketing territory and increase profit (Hansen &

Mowen, 2005: 5). Management accounting is employed as a tool to increase company’s wealth,

indicating its support to corporate hegemony since all activities should pertain to corporate

prosperity. Management accounting has a purpose to execute cost management to produce

information for managers for running organization effectively thus lead the organization to be

competitive (Blocher, Chen and Lin, 2000:27). Management techniques, such as ABC, TQM and

the BSC, are tools utilized to achieve competitive strategy (with three pointers, high technology,

high risk, and high investment) that is focused on profit maximization to enable its going

concern. Local needs such as UKM have no capability to take the three pointers of competitive

strategy approach. Hence, as a result of corporate hegemony emphasize in management

accounting education, accountants have been drifted away from local needs. To prove this, only

one3 out of 75 articles on management accounting issues, discussed about small enterprise

(UKM) during SNA 6-10. This shows that corporate hegemony directs the development of

accounting education. Instead of caring for the local needs such as UKM, accountants are more

concerned on market interest. International Education Standard (IES) no 4 confirms that

education should understand that ethics and values should be directed to the contribution of

confidence and trust in the market (IFAC-IAESB, 2009).

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 Thus it is clear that we could not simply adopt education system by neglecting our own

cultural values and negating the presence of God or A priori judgment4 that has become the

source of moral. In an effort to do so, Mulawarman (2007) proposed a love based accounting

education concept; a holistic concept that conveys purification5. Purification is an enlightenment

and liberation process based on love. This is not the kind of love that is materialistic and anti-

altruism such as that we see in capitalism the west has carried through Adam Smith’s invisible

hands, but love beyond (hyper) all that. It is love that arises from tawhid6; love towards Allah

SWT. Purification has two purposes which are to desecularize education and this is done by

implementing refined hyperview of learning (rHOL) concept (appendix 2), and to liberate

accountants from corporate hegemony to be able to adopt a cultural- perspective in accounting

that is more suitable for local need.

Therefore the question of this paper is: how can the implementation of refined HOL

have impacts on management accounting learning process? Hence the purpose of this

research is to analyze the implementation of refined HOL to liberate accounting education from

secularism and corporate hegemony.

2. The Philosophy of Education

The philosophy of education deals with what and how education should be carried out

and this comprises all aspects of education (Sadullah, 2004: 9). With this in mind, let us turn to

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Article by Pinasti , Margani (2007)
4
Kant’s ethics described that moral principles in human could not be studied. Reasoning is based on knowledge that
is prior to experience (something that is metaphysical) (Barry, 1986:54) though it should be noted that Kant did not
mention God in defining where this a priori judgments come from.
5
in Islam domain/term, purification is a representation of tazkiyah
6
Al Tawhid is the act of affirming Allah SWT to be the One, the Absolute, Transcendent Creator. It is what gives
Islamic civilization its identity, which binds its all constituents together and thus makes of them an integral organic
body called civilization (Faruqi. 1998)

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see what education nowadays has become and then analyzed alternatives in achieving an “ideal”

education.

The first pointer is “what” is education? Education should transform culture, humanize

(Surakhmad, 2009: 25), prepare oneself for eschatological life (Tirtarahardja and Sulo, 2005:

43), and liberate (Munandir, 2009:9). On the other hand, accounting has a purpose to provide

information that is useful to present potential investors and creditors and other users in making

rational decisions (SFAC No. 1). Clearly, the provision of information to limited parties for

rational decision-making, or such short-term profane purpose, is not compatible with the long-

term even transcendent purpose of education. Accounting education in Indonesia has a great

purpose (as a local value) to retain faith towards God, Taqwa and morals as stated in the

Sisdiknas (National Education System). But as secularism has spread through Indonesian

education system, the accounting education practice has conveyed the spirit of capitalism,

maximizing profit despite moral and ethic causes. Webber believed that double-entry

bookkeeping in accounting and rationalizing accounting to give meaning to economic actions are

correlated to the spirit of capitalism and secularism ( Christie et al, 2004).

Syariati (1986:26-27) elucidates that modern education system has put the intellectuals in

a “golden cage” among the elite away from common people. As a result, two gaping poles are

created, which are the theoretic pole and the practice (real world) pole. Enlightenment would

unite these two poles7. Intellectuals should enrich knowledge by observing, understanding and

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Any program which is directed to unite these poles are not liberating accounting education but directs accounting
education to support the interest of the corporations, hence strengthening corporate hegemony. IFAC-IAESB, as an
example, place accounting education as a “training ground” at the core of accountants development, instead of
values and ethics (Framework for International Education Pronouncements, paragraph 32-34, IAESB-IFAC, 2009).

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immersed in reality, not stand apart from it. This way they would be able to resolve problems

and fulfill local needs. This enlightenment process would release the intellectuals (read:

accountants) from corporate hegemony. It is the goal of humanity learning process. This must

emerge in (accounting) education.

The second pointer lies on “how” education should be carried out. Freire saw education

as an act of love (Levine dan Nabavi, 2004). “Love” here pertains with the liberation of the

oppressed (Freire, 2004: 176). He believed that human beings are gifted by the ability to act

consciously in order to change the world. But the world has undergone a Massification, a process

that is created by powerful social forces and systematically destroys the people by virtue of their

manipulative qualities. Thus Freire described that there are varying degrees of transitive

consciousness delineated resulted from this condition: naive transitivity, critical transitivity, and

fanaticized consciousness. And it is the role of educator to move this naive consciousness

towards critical consciousness. Though “love” as described by Freire, is still limited by

definition since it has purpose to free one self from oppression. It is still love that is

anthropocentric.

The ideal education should be based on love. Love towards God, as the main purpose,

would in turn be manifested to love towards others and environment. Hence, love such as

defined by Freire should undergo purification to change anthropocentric goal of education to

love towards God as a base of education. The latter, or hyperlove as Mulawarman (2006) called

it, is a concrete understanding about education interaction based on trust, honesty and to banish

doubts and treasons. Referring to Mulawarman (2006), love in education should always be

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directed towards love to God as a representation of faith. By doing this, education will be freed

from anthropocentrism because love towards God needs understanding that it is human’s

obligation to serve others.

Mulawarman (2006) in designing Love Based Accounting Education (LBAE) used an

extension of Habermas’ Ideologiekritik8. Habermas (Hardiman, 2003:19) bridged two praxis9.

These are transcendental and empirical. By this, it would be able to emancipate the UUD 45 and

UU Sisdiknas’s faith, taqwa and moral into accounting education system. Emancipation process

in LBAE does not only link the existing material praxis with communication to form values, but

redefining values by ethical and spiritual perspective called purification/ tazkiyah. Tazkiyah al-

anfus concept was once delivered by Rûmi (Kartanegara, 2003:63). It is about freeing oneself

from any dust of egoistic will as a process of intuitive learning because only with clear heart/

qalb, one would receive enlightenment. To be able to feel the presence of God, to love God’s

will and obey Him in all activities would free oneself from secularism.

Mulawarman’s HOL (Hyperview of Learning, see appendix 1), as LBAE

implementation, added two learning conceptions to six learning conceptions proposed by

Rossum and Shenk (1984) and Marton et al (1993) in Byrne and Flood (2004: 27) which are: the

increase of knowledge, memorizing, acquisition of facts, abstraction of meaning, an interpretive

process and changing as a person; with: a self awareness with intuitive process and an obedience

activity in spiritual way. As mentioned earlier these two concepts would free students from

8
This is Jurgen Habermas’ Critical Theory that stands amidst dialectical tension between philosophy and sociology.
(Hardiman, 2003:18)
9
PRAXIS (Greek) refers to understanding in world, life and passion to change it (Freire, 2004)

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egoistic will, and complete rationalized thinking to achieve enlightenment. This is the essence of

purification.

Unfortunately, HOL has two limitations. First, HOL has not yet blended thoroughly the

importance the learning concepts of self-awareness with intuitive process and obedience activity

in spiritual way as Mulawarman simply added the two concepts without integrating them with

the earlier concepts. Second, HOL has not yet emphasized the importance of educators as the

success factor in implementing HOL.

3. Conventional Management Accounting

In this part of the paper, we are going to highlight these two main traits: secularism and

corporate hegemony, that are present in Indonesian conventional management accounting. These

two traits/themes are embedded in all topics in management accounting. We will prove this by

grasping three topics. These are ABC, BSC and TQM.

ABC10 deals with activities that are grouped into value added and non-value added

activities, and retain only value added activities. However, value added concept in ABC is

concerned to management and corporate (stockholders) interests only. This is an oversight in

ABC since it reduces the stakeholders’ interest (environment, people) and especially

accountability towards God. Even if Institute for Managements Accountants (IAMI), based on

the notion of people-planet-profit (3P), has proposed the preparation of Corporate Social

10
As methods of allocating costs evolve from traditional to modern paradigm, Activity Based Costing (ABC) has
become a popular choice since it classifies costs through activity management by the means of Activity Based
Management (ABM). This method is claimed more accurate than traditional method of cost allocation.

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Responsibility report, many feel that this is also rhetoric. For example, Indonesian Social

Responsibility Awards (ISRA) winner in 2008 is PT. Kiat Indah Pulp and Paper, Tbk., which

based on the study of Noor and Syumanda (2006) create social and environmental destruction.

As we know Indonesia has religious values that has become its local values. The fact that

ABC focuses on value chain that starts from suppliers and end at consumers, emphasizes the

efficiency concept. Every activity should reach one goal, which is profit. ABC is reinforcement

to corporate hegemony.

ABC will eventually leads to the implementation of TQM, as a management tool for

controlling quality costs. Juran as cited by Hansen and Mowen (2005) described that in TQM

activity pertaining quality would be divided into four activities11. None of these activities and

costs reflects obedience to spiritual way. Halal12 has never become the characteristic of quality.

This has become a disturbing thought especially the fact that Indonesia is the largest Moslem

country in the world. There is never discussion on the conformity on halal process or activities.

Halal activities are about moral, i.e. ethical conducts that comply to God's rule. It is interesting to

see that Hansen and Mowen have added ethical behavior in management accounting. However,

the term ethic refers to the belief that each individual in a group should sacrifice for the well

being of the others (2005:20). This would only reach up to the conventional level of Kohlberg’s

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(1) internal failure costs, associated with defects found prior to transfer of the product to the customer; (2) external
failure costs, associated with defects found after product is shipped to the customer; (3) appraisal costs incurred in
determining the degree of conformance to quality requirements; (4) prevention costs incurred in keeping failure and
appraisal costs to a minimum.
12
Halal is something that is permissible in Islam in order to comply to Allah’s rule. In Islam human must not eat
pork and consume alcohol.

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moral developments13. There are no considerations for immediate and obvious consequences to

others as result of a group need. This is another emphasize on corporate hegemony (if a group is

considered a company). Thus, TQM conveys secularism as well as negates local needs

(corporate hegemony).

TQM14 also supports corporate hegemony. Constancy of purpose toward improvement of

product and service is with the aim to become competitive. This is the first out of 14 pillars of

Deming’s TQM (Zhang, 2001). Like ABC this anthropocentric motivation replicates corporate

hegemony and negate the value added creation for its stakeholders.

Another management accountant tool is BSC. As Kaplan and Norton put it (1996), the

BSC is about translating strategy into action. The stress lies on strategy to enable company’s

going concern. Although the BSC is a ‘balanced’ set of measures since it encompasses financial,

customer, internal business and learning and growth perspectives, financial measures are still

regarded valuable and become the focal point in summarizing the readily measurable economic

consequences of actions already taken (Kamayanti, 2005).

Therefore, Indonesian education system that relies on textbooks as teaching media, sadly

it can be said that students learning conceptions would be limited to: the increase of knowledge,

memorizing and acquisition of facts, procedures etc, which can be retained and or used in

practice. Secularism and corporate hegemony as values transferred in such learning conceptions

13
Kohlberg defined three levels of moral developments: pre conventional level, conventional level and post-
conventional/principled level. Up to level 2, conforming to social order is important regardless of immediate and
obvious consequence. Only in level three spiritual awareness is elevated (Lovell, 1995: 79)
14
The theoretical essence of the Deming approach to TQM concerns the creation of an organizational system that
fosters cooperation and learning for facilitating the implementation of process management practices, which, in turn,
leads to continuous improvement of processes, products, and services as well as to employee’s fulfillment, both of
which are critical to customer satisfaction, and ultimately, to firm survival or going concern.

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are inevitable; a certainty in a conventional management accounting education. There is no

question about it: education model must change.

4. Research Methods: Exethnography

Mahzar describes culture (1983:86) as a form of a collection of human characters that

consists of two aspects: cultural behavior pattern and production of cultural objects. These

aspects are formed by values and norms rooted from the Ultimate Value which is faith towards

God. Based on these values and norms, human being creates cultural values that shape cultural

hopes that in turn shape cultural behavior that would end at shaping cultural objects. Integrating

this ultimate value into hopes, behavior and the formation of cultural objects is what Mahzar

(1983: 78) expressed as Islamic civilization (see appendix 3). Hence, if management accounting

learning process is viewed as a culture, then Anthropology15 is one tool that must be taken.

Anthropology as methodology stands on two supporting pillars: Theory16 and Ethnography

(Saifuddin, 2005: 36). The employed methods are the Ethnographic Research (Sarantakos, 1995:

264) or Ethnographic Field Strategies (Berg, 2004: 147).

Ethnography becomes a process of gathering systematic observations, partly through

participation and partly through various types of conversational interviews. It may require

additional use of photography, computers, mapping, archival searches and even assorted

15
Anthropology as defined by Peoples and Bailey (Sarantakos: 1995: 264) is interested in the structure and process
of culture by trying to understand the patterns of behavior, values, norms and standards as experienced and
practiced by people.
16
Theory assumes four basic elements: (1) question (what we want to find out), (2) assumptions on notions of
common humanity, (3) method and (4) evidence, while ethnography is the practice of cultural writing. Spradley
defined ethnography as the work of describing a culture (Berg, 2004: 147). Thus ethnomethodology is an effort to
describe and understand people in their everyday life such as the interaction pattern, how people thinks, how they
feel and talk (Bungin, 2007: 170). The term ethnomethodology was introduced by Garfinkel in the year of 1967,
referring to the study of the ways in which people make sense of their social world (Poore, 2000).

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documents (Berg, 2004: 154). The definition put forward on Ethnography limits the research

to only observing cultural objects and behavior.

As discussed in Mahzar (1983), there are values that embedded in cultural objects and

behavior. By mere use of Ethnography, these values would not be exposed. One would need

Phenomenology, a method invented by Edmund Husserl (1859-1938), to derive values from

observations. It seeks to make explicit the implicit structure of human experiences. It is the

search of essences that could not be revealed by ordinary observation (Sanders, 1982). It is not

an abstraction but intuition about meaning.

Therefore there would be the use of noema, noesis, intentional analysis, epoche and

eidetic reduction. The terms noesis and noema more or less correspond to the two poles of

intentional consciousness: the thinking and the thought. In this case noesis is the thinking, and

noema is the object that is in that thinking. Husserl (Pransejit, 2002). Intentional analysis is

linking up the two. The epoche is a form of suspense of judgment; a way to let the phenomena

speak while `bracketing' the usual presuppositions that are in force in any given situation.

Abstraction of essence or universality of noema-noesis correlation is eidetic reduction, which

needs intuitive or reflective ability by the researcher.

However Phenomenology itself does not extend to the Ultimate Value. Therefore it is

necessary to always derive values to the Ultimate Value by the use of epoche. Meanings behind

phenomena are continuously being verified and consolidated with the Ultimate Value or absolute

reality (God). Since the Ultimate Value (God) is the main entrance of theory and knowledge

(accounting), it is necessary to do a hyper analysis; an analysis that would enable researcher to

probe deep into values beyond objective (materials) values. The use of intuitive (irfani)

(Kartanegara, 2003:52) and dzauqi (feeling) is inevitable in conducting this research. By this

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conceptual framework, Ethnography would undergo extension to Phenomenology and Ultimate

Value. This is an extension of Ethnography or we would call it Exethnography. Hence, the

Exethnography (appendix 4) of this research would take form as follows:

1. Management accounting learning process, as a culture, consists of two elements: the

educator’s role and the students’ learning conception. Exethnographic field notes are

taken to portray objects and behavior of 55 management accounting students. This is

done in management accounting class, in which the researchers are responsible to teach.

As a result, researchers are thoroughly involved in the implementation of rHOL. The

three topics of management accounting taught (ABC, TQM, and BSC) were taken as

examples.

2. As educators as well as researchers, we must apply rHOL especially intuitive learning

(irfani) to develop dzauqi. Students are asked to observe phenomenon so they can

develop “feeling” and intuition, as well as to compare these phenomenon to compliance

to local values (faith towards God) and local needs (local management accounting). This

is also ethnography work for it is common for ethnography to do some intervention in a

given situation. The role of educator is essential to execute shift of consciousness as

Freire has described. However, purification of anthropocentric will, must be present in

this process by putting in faith towards God.

3. There is an expected shift of consciousness that will reflect in values. These values can be

extracted by Phenomenology by the use of noema, noesis, eidetic reduction and

intentional analysis. “Bracketing” values derived from students is done through epoche

that can be executed by educator (researcher) during class intervention. This shift is

recorded through synchronic documentation, as a method applied by Ethnography.

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 4. Finally, conclusion on the research can be made: whether there is a shift of consciousness

or any impact on the students that is reflected in values derived (pre-intervention) to

values incurred (post-intervention) as a result of implementation of rHOL and how this

consciousness would liberate students from secularism and corporate hegemony.

Qualitative approach has an ontological belief that reality is not causal in nature, and

epistemological belief that the relationship between the researcher and those being studied is

interactive and unique. Outlining methods and contextual factors that may have influenced data

set, subsequent results and conclusion is supporting reliability. Validity could be achieved by

field notes and transcribing data accurately to maintain data originality (Morse, 1994: 366)

5. Research Results: Implementation of rHOL in Management Accounting Class

Love Based Accounting Education (LBAE) was carried out through rHOL. There are two

subjects that are needed to execute rHOL, willing educators and students. It was important that

an educator realized his/her role since he/she must be the initiator to the process to shift

consciousness of students. This process is called purification. It is about continuously using

intuitive learning and obedience to spiritual activities through all learning concepts. It was not an

easy task to develop purification since students are used to textbook based education model, and

new approach that is brought by purification is considered strange. An example of how this is

done is reflected in this transcription.(See transcription notes no. 1 for a complete note, E=

Educator, S= Students)
E= Close your eyes and breath deeply and evenly. (There was laughter of disbelief)
S= What does it have to do with this?

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 E= Just do it. Empty your minds of all thought, close you eyes (there were giggles,
smiles, and reluctance). Don’t be shy. Do it, for it is only with clear mind and heart
that we would receive enlightenment. Dzikir if you are Moslems or even meditate.
Do whatever you wish.
S= This is hard, Mam

It can be established that by implementing rHOL there was an impact: most students

underwent a shift of consciousness though the range varied. A shift of consciousness, as Freire

described, was the key of education based on love, which according to him, is anthropocentric

love to liberate oneself from oppression. However, rHOL has extended this love towards

hyperlove by purification.

The variation of consciousness showed that there were 3 levels of rHOL implementation

impacts on different types of students. There are three types of students identified by the use of

Typologies17: the attentive (sat at the front 2-3 lines, active, making serious remarks and paying

full attention to lessons), the passive (sat in the middle of the class, hardly commented, listened

most of the times), and the cheerleaders (sat at the back of the class, came late often, listened

occasionally, never commented seriously, but made the most cheering when they came across

something that was regarded funny).

The first level of impact was that it could be used as a tool to comprehend values

transferred by conventional management accounting education. This is a verstehen18 level.

All students of all types could reproduce the secularism and corporate hegemony themes through

management accounting discourses as educator constantly inserted self awareness with intuitive

process and obedience activity in spiritual way in all six learning conceptions (increase of

knowledge, memorizing, acquisition of facts, procedures etc, which can be retained and or used

17
Typology is a systematic method (commonly used in ethnography) for classifying similar events, actions, objects,
people or places into discrete groupings (Berg, 2004: 181)

15
in practice, abstraction of meaning, an interpretative process aimed at the understanding of

reality and changing as a person) as a steering center of learning process.

These two concepts of steering center have been employed during an implementation of

rHOL. Self-awareness with intuitive process as one of the central learning conceptions would

assist students to liberate them from corporate hegemony. This is done by putting the students

into real life cases and observing phenomenon. While studying the cost concepts, the students

were asked to get down on to the field and conduct interviews as well as observe activities of

local traders. The results were surprising to them. They realized that local traders primary need

was cash-flow statement, and there was a local value that was unseen before. This was the

concept of obligation (ibadah) to start a business and the gratitude towards God. These local

needs and local values have been ignored throughout management accounting discourses. A

group of students conducting research was able to portray local accounting needs and values:

“We interviewed Bapak Fuad a store owner in Waru, Sidoarjo. He opened his store out of
his bank deposit. His main reason to open a store was that so he could take care of his
family as his obligation. It is ibadah. He stated Alhamdulillah it was because of his effort
and Allah’s will he could become what he is now. He regarded accounting as “counting”
how much is spent or gained during on daily basis”

The second level of rHOL impact was that it could be a stimulant to change as a result

of the first level of impact. This is a critical level. An educator must always steer students’

conception of thoughts towards Allah. The following transcription of the ABC session clearly

indicated that educator should allow students to develop intuitional learning, extend their

conceptions of learning towards obedience. The students were just proposing to reduce costs by

substituting human for machines since machines would be more efficient. (see transcription

notes no 2 for a complete note, S= Students, E= Educator)

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Understanding (Hardiman,2003:14). Verstehen is a methodological tool which drew attention to the importance of

16
 E : I see… what you just did is Dehumanization. You’re saying… we should replace
human being, the most gracious respected creature Allah SWT has ever created
with mere machines? (a pause, and then laughter) I hope you are laughing at
yourself for being easily used as a tool to satisfy corporate lust for profit. This means
that you are a tool for corporate hegemony.
S : We are not using our hearts, are we?
E : Only you, can answer that.
S : Then how can we avoid being used?

This process is called purification, and it worked! The students’ consciousness had

shifted to a higher degree that was reflected by the comment “We are not using our hearts, are

we?” The next comment “Then how can we avoid being used?” even suggested that there was

already a change or will to change (or a stimulant to change) to be a better person. The latter

comment has confirmed students’ awakened awareness of corporate hegemony and the need to

liberate from it.

The third level of rHOL impact was that it could be employed as a tool for a change.

This higher level of impact enabled students to redesign systems that suit local norms, free from

secularism and corporate hegemony. This is a reconstruction/deconstruction level. The higher

the level of impact, the fewer are the impacted students. This might be caused by different

cultural background, learning attitudes and spiritual awareness. Out of all 55 students, we spotted

three students: Tapa, Cinta and Nori who reached different degree of consciousness.

Tapa is a Javanese Moslem and a Surabaya native. He is 20 years old, a very cautious

and quiet student. He would not make any comment unless asked. He is very tidy in appearance,

punctual and well liked by his colleagues. As an only child, his parents put a great emphasize on

education so that he could be better than his parents and that one day he could improve economic

condition of his family.

understanding the subjective meaning which lay behind social action (Burrel and Morgan, 1993: 197)

17
 Before any implementation of rHOL i.e. at the beginning of a semester, his definition of

learning was “an activity done to add knowledge in order to be a better person”. However, in

the second week- after the implementation of rHOL, his definition of learning has extended to “a

way to change everything to a better state.” Hence, it was clear that learning for him has

shifted its orientation from anthropocentric to altruistic activity. However after 5 weeks of rHOL

implementation, his definition of learning has changed again. Learning was viewed as “an effort

to change one self to approach human’s perfection”. As the session moved on to the

discussion of ABC, Tapa was able to criticize ABC as a tool to maximize profit by reducing

costs which is done by managing activities without considering the halal or haram aspects.

Cinta is a Moslemah of 20 years old. She shows her Islamic identity by wearing a scarf

(jilbab) to cover her hair. She wears jeans most of the times, shirt, and jacket. She is a middle

child of 3 siblings. She is a native Surabaya and lives in Surabaya. Her parents have put great

emphasize on education since it is an important tool to survive globalization. She, unlike her

colleagues was talkative, and commented freely during management accounting sessions. She

initially regarded learning as “an investment”, and by 5 weeks she explained learning as activity

“done by heart since it will help me improve my relationship with God. Learning is my

obligation to God, so I would be useful for my God, family, and society”. She was able to

not only understand but also criticized TQM as well as suggested a change in education.

“TQM emphasizes in efficiency, maximization of profit, continuous improvements, and

orientation to customers and shareholders. Those themes convey the spirit of capitalism.
The large-scaled ones could evict small-scaled enterprises out. This is individualistic and
leads to dehumanization…. A change of view is needed. It would take process and
understanding, but may be with socializing this concept with regard to our obligation to
God, we can change. Socialization should start from early learning: junior, high school,
universities and society.”

18
 Nori is a very attentive student. He often asked for additional reading materials. He is 30

years old and a tax worker who tried to put an extra time to pursue higher education. He is a

Moslem, unmarried and Javanese. He was able to criticized BSC as “measurements that concerns

only in the interest of shareholders and customers, hence disregards other stakeholders including

environment, society and God”. He showed great interest and seriousness in observing

phenomenon and he was able to propose a definition of local accounting need based on that

observation. He observed a local restaurant, conducted an interview with Ibu Katminatun (the

owner) and based on that he proposed a definition, a local need for accounting:

“Accounting is recording inflow of cash and outflow of cash, so that it can be known the
net income that is obtained for a certain period. This information is used to make
decisions pertaining targeted income, amount of fund that should be spent, deposited and/
or invested”

Phenomenology can be used to describe these different attainments of consciousness.

Tapa can be classified as a passive student. He has indicated his comprehension of management

accounting conveyed values by his critics towards ABC. However, his anthropocentric setback in

the view of learning showed that he could only reach up to the first level of rHOL impact. An

intentional analysis was made that there was a great stress of his family expectancy to raise a

significant economic growth to the family since he is an only child. He has become a leaning

support for the entire family, thus this unconscious effort towards maximizing wealth might be a

hindrance to shift to a higher level of consciousness.

Cinta on the other hand, came from a faithful and obedient Moslem family. She can be

classified as an attentive student. She did not experience the same stress as Tapa since she is of

three siblings. She has reached the second level of the implementation of rHOL. It has stimulated

19
her to change. There was an impetus to change the society and the world as an obligation to

God. An intentional analysis was made, that although Cinta reached a higher level of

consciousness because she was spiritually more aware than Tapa, she did not cross the second

level to a higher level of rHOL impact because she was inexperienced. She was not exposed to a

work environment such as Nori, hence she did not see real life phenomenon as often as Nori.

This explained her inability to redesign systems that suit local business. Nori reached the highest

level of rHOL impact. An intentional analysis showed that he, being a tax worker and older, was

more experienced than either Tapa or Cinta. His attentive attitude towards study supported his

significant shift of consciousness. Shift of consciousness is very important to liberate students

from secularism and corporate hegemony. If students are conscious enough to see their presence,

they would try or act to change that.

By putting together these layers of culture through Mahzar’s cultural concept, it can be

derived that there has been an imbalance in integration of values as a result of secularism and

corporate hegemony. The strong held value of students and educators is without doubt Islam (see

Exethographic notes 1-4). But this value seemed to disappear as being reflected in cultural

objects (management accounting textbooks) and cultural behavior (attitudes of both students and

lecturers). Worse, cultural hopes are then no longer shaped by the ultimate value but they have

become a representation of cultural objects. The stated themes (ABC, TQM and BSC) are

simulacrum19 since they do not reflect the needs and values of localities as found throughout this

research as well as in the students’ findings.

19
Simulacrum is when the sign (writer- objects) precedes reality; it has neither rapport with nor resemblance to any
reality (writer- hopes/values); it is pure simulacrum.(Macintosh, 2000:16)

20
6. Conclusion: Implementation Prospect of rHOL in the future.

Humanity learning process through rHOL is without doubt can be used to re-align

cultural objects, behavior, and hopes with the ultimate value: faith towards God. This

Ethnography work has shown its enlightenment implications on both educator and students.

While educator has become enlightened since he/she would continuously be connected with

developing intuitive learning and obedience in spiritual activity throughout the course, rHOL

was able to shift students’ consciousness in three levels: 1. an understanding of values being

transferred by accounting themes, 2. a stimulated consciousness to change, 3. a need to change

and redesign systems that suit local values and faith towards God. By extending Freire’s role of

educator in this shift i.e. not only shifting consciousness to liberate one from oppression

(anthropocentric love) but also hyper that, a new consciousness should be inherent with faith

towards God as a result of purification process. The limitation of its success might be caused by

the lack of support of the whole accounting curriculum. The change of curriculum is an

inevitable implication. rHOL implementation demonstrates a promising prospect. If rHOL

could be employed thoroughly in accounting education, we believe rHOL would free

accountants from secularism and corporate hegemony, insyaAllah. Now it is up to the

accounting educators to trigger the change. Can we?

21
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