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The purpose of this paper is to explore how a professional accountants' Institute has projected its changing professional identity through its annual reports. Extensive research has shown that the annual report is one of an organization's most important documents to communicate with stakeholders. The New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants celebrated its centenary year in 2008. It is therefore timely to explore how this influential professional institute has projected its evolving identity to its stakeholders over 100 years of annual reports.

The paper uses a content analysis of archival records. The type of information and the manner of presentation via textual information and visual images in the Institute's annual reports are used to track a changing professional identity.

The analysis did not find any definitive statements of professional identity by the professional accountants' Institute. Early annual reports used a singular visual image to project authenticity. Increasing use ansd complexity of visual images and mission/vision statements projected an identity of expertise, integrity and global relevance, paralleling the impacts of globalization and advances in technology. The last decade of the Institute's annual reports reveals a sophisticated use of visual images and printing to enhance textual information. This marked a dramatic turn in the projection of professional identity whilst retaining the communication of a basic reality and professional traits to its members and stakeholders.

The paper is valuable as few other research studies have investigated the projection of changing professional identities via identity statements and visual imagery in annual reports.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a historical account of four unsuccessful merger attempts between Australia’s two major professional accounting bodies over a 30-year period (1969 to 1998), each of which ultimately failed. An analysis of the commonalities and differences across the four attempts is provided and social identity theory is used to explain the differences between members level of support for these merger bids.

This study adopts a qualitative approach using a historical research methodology to source surviving business records from public archives and other data gathered from oral history interviews.

The study found that, across all four merger attempts between Australia’s two professional accounting bodies, there was strong support from society members (the perceived lower-status group) and opposition exhibited by institute members (the perceived higher-status group). This study also found that the perceived higher-status organisation always initiated merger discussions, while its members rejected the proposals in the members’ vote.

This paper focusses on the Australian accounting profession, considering a historical account of merger attempts. Further research is required that includes interviews and surveys of those involved in making decisions regarding merger attempts.

This paper is the first to examine in detail these four unsuccessful merger attempts between the largest accounting organisations in Australia.

The target date for the completion of the Single European market at the end of 1992 will see the achievement of a complex series of measures designed to promote the free movement of goods, capital, services and people between the twelve countries of the European Community (EC) (Department of Trade and Industry, 1989a). Members of the UK occupational groups to which the term “professionals” is often applied are among the people who will be able to offer their services elsewhere in the EC. By the same token, European professionals will be able to establish themselves as service providers in the UK. This essentially simple potential for free movement of professionals (a simplicity achieved, however, through complicated negotiations amongst European policy makers) brings with it a number of questions of interest to “profession watchers” in the UK. How will UK professionals, and their institutions, respond to the challenges and opportunities that accompany this EC‐wide extension to their own rights of establishment? How will they respond to incoming migrant professionals from elsewhere in the EC? What policies and practices will UK professional institutions adopt in relation to their counterparts in other EC member states? What links will they forge with them and to what extent will these contacts lead to joint initiatives at a community‐wide level? This article reports on the first phase of a study designed to consider such questions during the run up to the completion of the single market and in its immediate aftermath.

This chapter highlights the collaborative efforts of committed partners engaged in four distinct yet inter-related programs designed to build leadership capacity across schools serving rural Alaska. The Rural Alaska Principal Preparation and Support (RAPPS) program has built a comprehensive system of leadership development programs that develop aspiring leaders, induct and coach new principals, promote the professional learning of practicing principals, and support the school improvement efforts of the state education department. Each program is described in detail with special attention devoted to the unique elements of the program designs, including summer institutes; cohort models; distance learning offerings; targeted coaching; blended learning models using webinars; critical friends’ conversations; and a festival of ideas. Lessons learned are highlighted, and impact and evaluation results are also detailed.

Investigations into professional accountancy education gathered impetus with the publication of The impact of globalisation on accountancy education by Karreman in 2002. This publication provided a comparative analysis of professional accountancy education in 25 countries worldwide, using a model developed for the classification of accountancy education systems. The rationale behind such an exercise is to promote educational exchange and facilitate educational development. The Karreman study only covered two countries in Africa, namely South Africa and Kenya. This study expands the Karreman study by comparing and benchmarking the professional accountancy education programmes in six member countries of the Eastern, Central and Southern African Federation of Accountants (ECSAFA) using the Karreman methodology. This study reports the results of a questionnaire survey to which seven accountancy bodies located in six countries responded. The results of this study revealed mostly agreement with the Karreman model. All the countries could be categorised as developing countries with common law/Roman‐Dutch legal systems and with a strong British influence. Thus similarities in regulation, education and practical experience are expected. The professional bodies tend towards professional selfregulation with low to medium membership regulation. All countries require practical experience before qualifying, and a theoretical approach to the final examination predominates. The study also shows that there is co‐operation in the region.

Explores several important issues associated with continuing professional development (CPD). Notes the importance of ensuring that CPD is driven by the needs of the business, and also considers the issue of whether CPD should be compulsory or voluntary. Presents the results of a survey targeted at human resource professionals in South Wales. The survey explored the attitude of respondents to a variety of CPD issues and found that, although most organizations had business plans, such plans were frequently silent on human resource activities which could enhance general business direction. Respondents, while remaining over‐whelmingly opposed to compulsory CPD, were in favour of some certification and recognition for CPD activities.

There is an increasing realisation that managerial and professional staff play a crucial role in determining the success of the organisations which employ them, whether in the private or the public sector. Hence there is a growing concern with the quality and development of such staff. A detailed study of these important occupational groups, which was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC reference F/00/23/00 98) was recently conducted by the authors. Although focused on Britain, the research is linked with parallel studies being undertaken in the US, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and several other European countries. The broader international study will be published within the next year as Roomkin, M. (Ed.), The Changing Character of Managerial Employment: A Comparative View Oxford, University Press, New York and Oxford. The demographic and educational trends which relate to managerial and professional employees, their careers and other aspects of the management of such human resources are discussed. The remuneration of managerial and professional staff, their unionisation and their role in the wider society are then considered.

Learning through formal and informal experiences is critical for building content knowledge, pedagogical skills, and self-efficacy/confidence for preservice teachers. teachHOUSTON offers numerous teacher enhancement opportunities outside the teacher education courses which allows preservice teachers to connect to the real world which includes being able to relate to a diverse population of students and to understand how the course content can be related to them, their families, and communities in their everyday experiences. Through formal and informal experiences such as professional development workshops, discipline specific courses, research experiences, and internships, preservice teachers have the opportunity to engage in hands-on science activities they can use with their students, develop lessons, and gain knowledge on how to deliver this content while managing their classroom. This chapter will give an overview of the formal and informal experiences offered through teachHOUSTON with a highlight on the structure and content of the six week Noyce Internship Program which engaged interns as counselors and teaching assistants in a summer STEM camp for underserved middle school students and introduces the interns to interactive sessions that model promising practices for teaching.