This chapter focuses on the concept of plagiarism through a case study of Punjabi international students (PS) in Canadian higher education. While plagiarism by international students is often seen as a sign of deficiency and a lack of academic abilities, this chapter aims to conceptualize and contextualize the phenomenon of plagiarism. The quick association of international students with cases of plagiarism overlooks structural and academic barriers that push some students to commit plagiarism. This chapter also distinguishes between unintentional and intentional plagiarism; while the first is often rooted in academic and language barriers, the second reflects wider structural barriers. Understanding the factors underlying plagiarism can help institutions provide relevant support for international students rather than invest in increased surveillance mechanisms.
TopIntroduction
This chapter is part of a wider research project focused on the experiences of Punjabi international students (hereafter PS) in higher education through a case study of Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU), a teaching university in British Columbia (BC) (Marom, 2021, forthcoming). As such, it does not aim to provide a full analysis of the complex and multi-layered phenomenon of internationalization in higher education, but rather, to highlight a sub-set of the data that intersected with the issue of plagiarism.
Plagiarism committed by international students is often seen as a sign of their deficiency and lack of academic abilities (Baas, 2010; Birrell, 2005; Caluya et al., 2011; Sidhu, 2006). A recent The Globe and Mail article titled “Why Many International Students get a Failing Grade in Academic Integrity” stated that “At some Canadian schools, an alarming number of the accused [plagiarists] share one characteristic: they came from abroad to study here” (Bradshaw & Baluja, 2021, para. 1).
This perception overlooks underlying causes for plagiarism that I explore in this chapter: mainly, differences between diverse educational systems as well as the multiple barriers that international students face in admission and retention in higher education. I argue that there is a need to conceptualize and contextualize the phenomenon of plagiarism in order to understand what might be driving some international students to plagiarize. Such analysis could help institutions of higher education in providing relevant support for international students rather than investing in increased surveillance mechanisms.
Caluya et al. (2011) suggest that literature on international students “tends to isolate pedagogic issues from the larger structural contexts within which the international student market and hence international students are formed” (p. 86). In the current chapter, PS experiences are analysed as underlined by structural and institutional mechanisms operating in a global, neoliberal higher education market. While this chapter is focused on PS, as members of a racialized group of international students coming from a non-Western education system, their experiences could reflect challenges experienced by other groups of international students of similar backgrounds.
This chapter starts with the wider framework of internationalization in higher education since these underlying structures are reflected in many of the experiences of PS, followed by context for the phenomenon of plagiarism. It then provides the background for PS at KPU and presents the methodological design of this study. The Findings section distinguishes between intentional and unintentional cases of plagiarism and analyses the main issues underlying them. The Solutions section recommends ideas for addressing these issues on a policy, institutional, and pedagogical level.