Responsibility and integrity in the curriculum

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the meaning of responsibility and how it might be integrated into the business school and university curriculum.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper analyses responsibility in terms of interactive modes, involving imputability (critical agency connecting culture and meaning, through reflection on purpose, values and practice), accountability (involving capacity to give an account and to handle plural accountability), and moral liability (involving responsibility for people, environment and practice, requiring shared and negotiated responsibility). This is related to employability and integrity, and then to practice in the curriculum.

Findings

The paper argues that the theory and practice of responsibility is able to integrate cognate concepts, different disciplines, different skills and dispositions and plural roles. The paper then argues that responsibility is most effectively engaged through a pedagogy of reflective practice and critical conversation, focused in personal, professional, civil, corporate and global responsibility, and provides a practical example.

Originality/value

The paper is original in the breadth of its view of responsibility, the stress on responsibility as focused in plurality and identity, and in the attempt to develop an integrated approach to teaching that focuses on responsibility.

Citation

Robinson, S. and Dowson, P. (2011), "Responsibility and integrity in the curriculum", Journal of Global Responsibility, Vol. 2 No. 2, pp. 253-268. https://doi.org/10.1108/20412561111166085