The curriculum of the course of Accounting Sciences in Brazil and Portugal: approximations and distancing

Abstract

This study investigated the conceptions and trends related to the curriculum of the Accounting major in Brazil and Portugal. It is a comparative study inserted in the fields of History of Undergraduate Education and History of School Institutions, and focused on the curriculum category of accounting courses in two institutions, one Brazilian and the other Portuguese: the School of Economics, Business and Accounting of the University of São Paulo (FEA-USP) and the College Institute of Accounting and Business of Lisbon (ISCAL). In Brazil, the regulation and inclusion of accounting education, at the college level dates back to 1945, being the FEA-USP, the precursor of this teaching since 1946. In Portugal, ISCAL was the first institution to teach the baccalaureate in accounting back in 1975, when the accounting course was restructured at a college level. It was concluded that the written curriculum was the instrument for dissemination of content and also for professional training in the molds required by the current capitalist culture. In both institutions, the curriculum adopted in the early years reflects legal determinations and political and economic influences. From the 1970s, in both institutions, the conception of teaching – derived from the curriculum based on the North American School – presents the reproductive and technical trend that marks, in a world-wide level, the teaching of accounting.