Dialogic Problematization of Academic Integrity Education

Many university educators have argued for a need for academic integrity education as an alternative to a focus on students’ and scholars’ compliance with academic rules and conventions (Brimble, 2016; Christensen Hughes & Bertram-Gallant, 2016; Hutton, 2006). I argue that the universal ethical-moral discourse of academic integrity disciplines subjects to comply with frequently alienating academic practices. This ethical discourse focuses on individual responsibility, in turn rendering invisible the authority of sometimes dysfunctional and oppressive instructional and summative assessment practices. Taking a Bakhtinian dialogic authorial perspective, the paper calls on students, scholars, instructors, and academic advisors to engage in critical ontological dialogue on diverse responses and motivations in regard to academic demands and deeds. Dialogue on situated instead of universal ethics in academic settings contextualizes and problematizes not just individual actions but also the ethics of the summative assessment regime, the instruction, the curriculum, authority dynamics, and the educational system as a whole. This discussion on academic integrity violations calls on educators to consider the ethical value of separating summative assessment from instruction.