Beyond technical rationality: habitus disruption and sustainable development goals in management accounting education

Purpose This study aims to examine whether an emancipatory action research (EAR) intervention can move accounting education beyond technical rationality and foster ethically reflexive professional identities aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Design/methodology/approach Drawing on Bourdieu’s theory of social reproduction, a semester-long intervention was implemented in a postgraduate management accounting unit (156 students). It combined an ethically ambiguous case study, dialogic engagement using visual prompts and revised assessment criteria that valued ethical as well as technical reasoning. Data from written submissions, semi-structured interviews and classroom observations were analysed thematically and interpreted through a Bourdieusian lens. Findings The intervention created moments of reflexive questioning that challenged entrenched technical reasoning, encouraging students to engage in forms of judgement that extended beyond calculative, compliance-orientated thinking towards broader consideration of stakeholders and social consequences. Six themes emerged that distinguished legal from ethical reasoning: recognising the difference between legality and ethics; critiquing profit-maximisation logics; prioritising long-term community well-being; broadening stakeholder sensitivity; integrating sustainability considerations; and expressing ambivalence indicative of reflexive engagement. The case-based, dialogic approach also contributed to the symbolic recognition of ethical engagement alongside technical competence. Research limitations/implications As a single qualitative case, the study invites longitudinal, cross-institutional and cross-cultural studies, the development of approaches for tracing provisional ethical reflexivity over time and examination of how such dispositions may translate into professional practice. Practical implications Findings support the embedding of ethics across management accounting curricula, redesigning assessment to recognise ethical and sustainability considerations and the adoption of dialogic pedagogies. The findings also suggest the importance of recognising ethical reflexivity as a core professional competence. Social implications Cultivating reflexive engagement with ethical and social consequences can better prepare professionals to balance organisational imperatives with sustainability, contributing to SDG 4 (Quality Education) and SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production). Originality/value The study provides empirical insight into how critical pedagogy operationalised through EAR can invite reflexive questioning of technical rationality and reposition ethical reasoning as symbolic capital within the field of accounting education.