Role of Lecturers in Curriculum: Differences in Understanding and
Interpretation

This paper presents findings from a study about how academics understand teaching in higher education. It focuses on how they interpret the curriculum. It is one of three connected papers which considers the role of the lecturer in interpreting the curriculum. The paper examines profiles of lecturers of accountancy, all of whom teach to the same curriculum. It describes differences between lecturers in the way the subject is defined and how students are brought into relation with the subject matter. The results suggest that lecturers emphasise different aspects of accountancy in their classes - the same topic may be presented as an exercise of judgement in the application of principle, or as a process of becoming familiar with increasingly complex calculations. These differences embody different conceptions of accountancy as a discipline. This paper considers the way in which lecturers in higher education think about the subject they are teaching and how they bring their students into relation with it, which forms what is to be learnt. How this is done is not limited to the process of presentation but considers the content offered to students in the framework of the discipline as seen by the lecturer.