Shaping culture of academic integrity in corpore: Lecturers' perspective

Abstract

This paper presents a part of the research on the culture of academic ethics in a community of one Lithuanian university and is based on empirical data collected during 15 individual semi-structured interviews with university lecturers. According to respondents, academic ethics as well as academic integrity reveals itself in a relationship based on mutual respect, equality, trust, and empathy. They discuss four main types of relationships in academia: student – student, student – lecturer, lecturer – lecturer, and lecturer – administration. The aim of this paper is to reveal manifestations of solidarity within academic community and its impact on shaping the culture of academic integrity from the perspective of university lecturers. As results of the research indicate, lecturers are convinced that academic integrity is the goal of both students and lecturers, based on the agreement of members of academic community on integrity standards and encouraged by the integral mutual relationship. Only members of the academic community in corpore could achieve this goal. Interviews with lecturers have also revealed the dual impact of solidarity on academic integrity in their daily relationship with students, colleagues and administrative staff. On the basis of their experiences two – negative and positive – forms of solidarity in the context of academic integrity could be observed. Their manifestations depend on what is considered as the main goal: academic integrity as a common interest of the academia or individual preferences. Although lecturers stress negative impact of students’ solidarity on the academic integrity during tasks performance, still they believe that collaboration with students and colleagues could make a positive impact of the maintenance of academic integrity. Lecturers also expect a support of university administration in this matter.