THEORETICAL REFLECTION ON EPISTEMOLOGY AND EPISTEMOLOGICAL BREAKS IN ACCOUNTING AND ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCES

Abstract

The research explores epistemological ruptures, understood as significant shifts within a specific mode of thinking or rationality, particularly in the context of university education in the fields of Accounting and Management. The main objective of the study is to analyze and identify the factors that trigger or motivate epistemological ruptures, the ways in which they manifest in practice, and the opportunities university professors have to experience them in thesis work. Additionally, it seeks to determine their practical manifestations and evaluate the possibilities for professors to undergo these experiences in thesis projects within the fields of Accounting and Management at public and private universities in Ecuador. The results from the analysis of research papers conducted in Ecuadorian universities led to the development of a five-stage framework that guides an epistemological rupture: crisis, transduction, critique and reflection, understanding, and finally, the adoption of the new approach. Understanding this process through narratives helps facilitate the development of new epistemological ruptures, fostering the formation of researchers without the need to go through all the traumatic steps typically associated with these processes, thus contributing to the training of researchers in Ecuadorian universities.