Drama for developing integrity in Higher Education

Abstract

Developing academic integrity is context-based and ineffective through formal courses. The article explores the meanings of academic integrity, reviews literature on educational strategies towards its development and presents the design and results of the author’s research on how drama may augment development of academic integrity of MBA students in the innovation camp setting. The philosophical framework for integrity learning and its perception by students comes from Bakhtin’s dialogical theory of self and critical pedagogy of Freire. Drama is offered as a learning medium which provides context to explore multiple perspectives and imaginary dialogues of characters who may take ethically dubious positions. Assessment of integrity at the input stage and after completion of the drama sessions was two-fold. A self-efficacy test was used for standardized measurement and sociometry was applied to asses four areas of ethical education: (1) being sensitive to ethical dilemmas at stake; (2) reasoning/reflective skills and; (3) motivation/conviction to give over other considerations to the values, principles, or ideals that prompt the action to be taken; (4) strategizing to act ethically. The findings suggest that drama effectively augments the development of otherwise stable integrity of MBS students by making them more optimistic about their courage to adhere to values in face of adversity, especially to defend diversity as a human right and pre-condition for innovation. This article is published as part of a collection on integrity and its counterfeits.