SAHEIs must acknowledge that students come from different backgrounds,
with different accepted ways of being and doing that might clash
with current academic principles. Therefore, there is a need to rethink
institutional culture and shift practices toward learning and care. SAHEIs
need to move away from a teaching-centered culture where institutional
policies and systems are built around the teacher and move toward learning
excellence. This places students and their needs at the center of the
institution. This naturally extends into aspects linked to institutional culture
such as academic integrity/misconduct and the policies and systems
linked thereto.
Using frameworks is a novel approach to understanding problems and
challenges as it provides a lens or critical perspective to define the challenges
and find a way forward. However, using only one lens provides a
limited understanding or singular view of the problem. Therefore, it is beneficial to use multiple lenses to critically reflect on a problem or context
in order to shift thinking to find different solutions or cultural innovations.
The benefit of using both ethics of care (EoC) and restorative
justice (RJ) for evaluating institutional culture, systems, and policies for
academic misconduct is that they complement each other. Both are
people-centered approaches that can be used to develop a softer culture
where the student is placed in the center and where learning, administration,
and support (Fig. 2.3) for academic integrity are built around the
students to help them become better academic citizens rather than to vilify
students. As such, both allow for the recognition of the student and
their needs, moving away from the decontextualized learner to viewing
students as social beings (Boughey & McKenna, 2016).
By suggesting the use of two lenses, EoC and RJ, we—the authors—
try to acknowledge the complex and multifaceted nature of academic
misconduct as well as the need to not have a “one-size-fits-all” approach
to breaches of integrity. It requires the institution to introspect and resituate
academic integrity within a broader institutional cultural change.It is important for HE institutions (HEIs) to employ multiple strategies
such as developing explicit educational experiences for students, creating
check-in systems that can be incorporated into existing support structures
at university such as mentorship programs, advising programs, and writing
programs, as well as explicitly talking about academic integrity at class and
course level to name but a few. For these aspects, it is important for institutions
to shift their tone from punitive and adversarial to a tone of inclusivity
and community building (Sopcak, 2021), which forms part of the
larger paradigm shift to learning excellence where the institutional culture
is built around the student.
This conceptual chapter considers EoC and RJ, later defined as restorative
practice (RP) as possible ways to reimagine and recenter the culture
of academic integrity around the student and to reshape institutional practices using a framework of learning excellence. The chapter is written to
help academics, policymakers, registrars, deans, curriculum developers,
and other individuals involved in academic integrity/misconduct reflect
on their current culture and practices around academic misconduct, as
well as to reimagine their institutional approaches to be more inclusive
and student centered when dealing with academic integrity and misconduct.
The first step is to unpack how to reframe a culture of learning
excellence with EoC and RJ at the heart of an institutional academic
integrity culture.
2. Establishing a culture of learning excellence
Reimagining Learning in HE is a collective process between staff, students,
and institutional leadership. Changing this learning and teaching
culture to one focusing on student inclusivity requires us to reimagine our
current practices in HE, to one of partnering with students in order to
develop better systems, processes and procedures, and a learning environment that benefits the students. To do this, one needs to understand the relationship between institutional culture, curriculum, and the context, in which these systems intersect to enhance the student experience (van As et al., 2023).
Traditionally, a key focus of HE institutions has been on teaching
excellence (Kreber, 2002), in which learning pedagogies place the educator
at the center of institutional decisions. This promotes an organizational
culture of teaching and knowledge transmission where the student is
expected to listen and absorb rather than to engage meaningfully with
learning. Part of the reason for this is that South African universities place
a significant emphasis on research output to remain internationally relevant
and competitive, with significantly less focus on students’ learning
journey. However, universities are mandated to not only develop knowledge
but also “provide optimal opportunities for learning” (The Higher
Education Act [No. 101 of 1997], 1997, p. 2). The emphasis on HEIs
should therefore shift toward providing students with the best learning
experience possible. This requires institutions to place students at the center
of the decision-making process, as well as to adopt student-centered
practices. By doing so, it will be possible to promote a shift from teaching
excellence to learning excellence (Fig. 2).
Learning Excellence involves assessing and reassessing student,
employer, and societal needs to ensure degrees remain current and relevant.
Drawing on 21st century skills, for example, is one way of adapting
discipline specific knowledge to remain relevant for radically changing
work environments (Germaine, 2016). Additionally, learning excellence is
also about making sure that appropriate and effective teaching, support,
assessment, and learning opportunities are provided to students, which
includes monitoring student performance, creating a culture of academic
integrity, providing support through mentorship, peer-tutoring or additional
assignments, and making counseling services available to students in
need.