Reconociendo relaciones complejas: prueba piloto de la captura de representaciones sociales de la contabilidad y la contaduría

Abstract

This paper is a component of the research project “Representaciones sociales de la contabilidad y la contaduría en los estudiantes del programa de Contaduría Pública de la Universidad Militar Nueva Granada” (Social representations of accounting and accountancy of students taking the Public Accounting Program at Nueva Granada Military University). This paper analyzes the feasibility of the application of the associative letters methodology as a useful instrument to find central representation nuclei regarding accounting and public accountancy in higher education students. This paper begins with a brief study of social representations and the importance of their analysis in accounting. It, then, discusses why associative letters can be understood as an appropriate methodological strategy serving this purpose. Later, the most relevant issues regarding the administration of a pilot test on fifth-semester accountancy students are reviewed. Finally, the most relevant notes towards the construction of an inquiry instrument for the following phase are discussed.