The Concept of Integrity in Teaching and Learning

Abstract

In this paper it is argued that the concept of integrity in a person, or an activity, or an institution, is intimately connected with notions of wholeness and completeness, and that the creation of integrity consists in developing an awareness of the possibility of greater wholeness and completeness, and in creating environments in which they may occur. In a manner analogous to ethical integrity, integrity in inquiry, knowledge learning and teaching is seen as arising from a preparedness to submit oneself to a larger intellectual whole, in which one might say that individual preference is secondary to a “transcending state of affairs”. Some suggestions are made to help towards progressing the ideals of integrity in teaching and learning, with some discussion in relation to specific disciplines.