Culture shock: I don't understand what plagiarism means

At the Learning in Law Annual Conference 2010, Martin Jones (Glasgow Caledonian University) posed the question: whilst universities are chasing international students, are law schools doing enough to support the transition of culturally diverse learners into a UK educational setting?

Investigations of alleged plagiarism amongst international students at Glasgow Caledonian University have revealed that whilst some instances were rooted in dishonesty, the majority are a reflection of poor academic practice, where culturally diverse prior learning experiences may have been a factor.

This view is supported by the work of Hayes & Introna (2005) in the context of business and management students and more generally by Carroll (2002). Earlier research on student plagiarism focused on detection and deterrence mechanisms, but more recently the emphasis has shifted towards promoting values of academic honesty and integrity. One of the key recommendations of Juwah et al (2006) is that “international students should be made fully aware of and enabled to understand the concept of plagiarism from the western construct”.

The development of such academic literacy requires a carefully planned approach which goes beyond ensuring an awareness of plagiarism regulations or the ability to construct a bibliographic referencing system. In order to make effective progress and to facilitate a smooth articulation into a UK institution it may be helpful to have understanding of the knowledge and learning process from alternative perspectives to the western construct.

The presenter is engaged on a project designed to achieve these aims and to inform the development and implementation of learning materials and activities.

References:

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• Carroll J (2002) A handbook for deterring plagiarism in higher education Oxford: Centre for Staff and Learning Development
• Hayes J & Introna L (2005) ‘Cultural values, plagiarism, and fairness: when plagiarism gets in the way of learning’ Ethics & Behavior 15:(3):213-231
• Juwah C, Lal D & Beloucif A (2006) Overcoming the cultural issues associated with plagiarism for international students (report of a project funded by the Academy Business, Management, Accounting and Finance Subject Network)

Helen James (University of Winchester) reports:

Martin began with an engaging and illustrative activity in which he asked four members of the audience to participate in a brief card game with known rules. One of the participants was, after a few rounds of the game, asked to leave the room. At this point the rules were changed, leaving the poor victim totally befuddled when she tried to rejoin the game at a later stage. This simple activity was used to demonstrate the frustration that international students may feel when the rules of plagiarism they have come to understand in their own educational systems appear to change when they take up study in the UK.
 
As lecturers many of us make the assumption that plagiarism by international students, which sometimes goes so far as to involve wholesale lifting of text from other authors, is attributable to cultural differences. However, the empirical research undertaken by Martin would indicate that this may not in fact be the case. Questioning of students indicated that they nearly all understood what plagiarism is and the need to reference. The question to be addressed then is why they continue to be amongst the most frequent offenders in this area.
 
Discussion, as might be predicted, resulted in significant differences of opinion. One participant in particular felt that knowing what plagiarism means and that effective referencing is an essential component of academic work is enough. Others, by far the majority, felt that there may still be cultural differences reflected in the mechanics of referencing.

About Martin

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Martin Jones is Director of the LLM Programme in the School of Law & Social Sciences at Glasgow Caledonian University. He is the module leader for Legal IT, E Law and EU Law, as well as Blackboard coordinator within the school.

Last Modified: 9 July 2010