1

Integration and Integrity in Academic Enquiry

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL)Symposium

University of Glasgow

27th March 2008

Stephen RowlandProfessor of Higher Education

Institute of Education and University College London

2Some Questions

• Are good teachers usually also good researchers?

• Does doing research improve your teaching?• Can teaching stimulate your research?• Is teaching better in an environment which is

enthused by research?• Do students like to be taught be good

researchers?• etc

3Some conclusions of Marwell 2004

‘a preference for forms of higher education that are enquiry based’

‘a strong doubt as to whether higher education that is not enquiry based can even be regarded as ‘higher education.’

Report on the International Colloquium Research and Teaching: Closing the Divide.

Marwell, March 2004Paragraph 46 v

‘higher education has lost its role as conscience and critic of society’

(Bone and McNay 2006:76)

Conducting academic practices with integrityby

Integrating academic practices

.

4

5Aspects of academic enquiry

Dialectical relationship between

compliance and contestation

Dialectical relationship between

compliance and contestation

maintained by

Intellectual love

6Aspects of academic enquiry

7Contestation and Compliance

350 BC

Plato’s Socrateslearning is innate

maieutic method

critical dialogue

exploration

student centred

reflective practice

risky

8Contestation and Compliance

350 BCPlato’s Socrates Isocrateslearning is innate socially determinedmaieutic method rhetorical methodcritical dialogue persuasionexploration instructionstudent centred the lecturereflective practice disciplinerisky predictable

9Contestation and Compliance

• 427-347BC Plato

• 1533-1592 Montaigne

• 1679-1778 Rousseau

• 1859-1952 Deweyall spoke out against those social forces that

could not tolerate the risky and often subversive nature of exploration

10Contestation AND Compliance

11Contestation AND Compliance

a context of enquiry gives the instructional or rhetorical performance significance for the learner

12Intellectual Love(1632-1677 Spinoza)

13Intellectual Love(1632-1677 Spinoza)

implies• desire for more intimate knowledge• knowledge open to reinterpretation• knowledge is social, inclusive and, collaborative• desire to share knowledge

14Conclusions

• Enquiry based learning involves contestation and compliance

• Need to resist overbearing demand for compliance

• Celebrate rather than squander intellectual love• Employers may welcome scholarly values• The academic community must articulate these

15Some final questions

• How to manage the tension between compliance and contestation in enquiry based learning?

• What are the threats to the integrity of academic enquiry and how can we address them?

• What is the role of intellectual love in enquiry based learning and how can we foster it?

• What are the implications for policy makers and managers?

• How to resist overbearing demands for compliance?