So this post was inspired by the ever insightful Jon Harris. But that doesn't mean it's going to be as creatively formatted. In fact, it's going to be pretty darn linear, so here goes.
Lately I've been thinking a lot about the disparity between teachers and students. It's actually something that plagues me daily, to a crippling degree, something I'm not even close to having an answer for and probably never will. It's just been fascinating to get to hear so many different voices in the same graduate boat saying so many different things about this power dynamic. I myself often want to discredit my students when they don't live up to my expectations; but listening to the way some people talk about how "stupid" students are has been really getting to me.
I read this piece by Sean Zwagerman called "The Scarlet P: Plagiarism, Panopticism, and the Rhetoric of Academic Integrity" that actually somewhat speaks to this. Zwagerman points out the "grades can determine my future" mentality that students often have and attributes this mentality (somewhat) to the influence the professional business sphere has on the academic sphere. Of this mentality he says, "This belief helps explain the actions of both students and teachers around the issue of academic dishonesty. If this student were to study successfully, he might get an A on the exam; but if he were to cheat successfully, he would have a better chance of getting an A because cheating mitigates the randomness of the outcome—it eliminates the personal factor and puts the student more firmly in control” (684).
I find this quote infinitely interesting because I think it speaks to a lot of the different factors we've been discussing this quarter that contribute to students' perspectives of school, how and where some of those factors are influencing their perspectives, the effects they have on us as educators, the effects they have on our classrooms, etc. When I think about all the things in life that are out of anyone's control like the blasted economy, the dismal job market, and so forth, it becomes apparent to me that our students are literally lost. With most of them being 18-21 and coming from one bubble (home) to the next (college), it makes ten times more sense to me why they would choose to plagiarize.
And with this realization comes some serious sympathy and empathy on my part. While plagiarism never once crossed my mind--perhaps because writing came naturally to me or perhaps because I was and still am very fearful of punishment--it makes complete sense to me why students would even consider plagiarism. Control. A sure thing. An Answer. Isn't that what we're all searching for? I recall the article we read in 591 about students cultivating their underlives and this reveals itself to me now as another way students attempt to take control of their lives and the situations within which they find themselves. Maybe that's why our students (sometimes, definitely not all the time) seem way more interested in partying and socializing than diligently working on our assignments. I think it goes beyond just wanting to have fun; maybe it's because they want to just be in control for once, to understand the situation they're in and act accordingly; something they probably don't yet feel comfortably doing in an academic setting.
I found this video on YouTube that maybe kind of sort of illustrates my point. It's silly, but rhetorically smart, too, and speaks from the perspective of students to the tension between fun and work in college life. It's entitled "Shit College Freshmen Don't Say." Enjoy.
you don't go to a bar or party and drink 3 gallons of beer to feel in control . . . I am not searching for firm answers most of the time. Maybe I was at the age of our students . . .
ReplyDeleteI am much more interested in questions.
Looks like a great article. Can you post the citation?
"...it makes complete sense to me why students would even consider plagiarism. Control. A sure thing. An Answer."
ReplyDeleteI think you're on to something about the seductive quality of having some control or certainty about the academic outcomes. I wonder too what degree the educational attitudes our students are coming from in high school influence the desire for certainty. My high school experience was one in which a "right answer"--not exploration for its own sake--was prized and rewarded, even in the tightly-controlled forms of academic writing we learned. The loss of that certainty could be terrifying. What ways could we go about making exploration and risk seem less frightening (especially given the importance of grades to students)?
I enjoyed the video. I can see your point about students wanting to be in control, but as Dr. Rouzie said, students don't drink 3 gallons of beer to feel in control. A lot of what was in the video I don't think is really a matter of control, but of being away from home and having fun. While it's good for us to understand why some students plagiarize, I think that feeling control would only be one reason of many. There are also those students who don't take composition classes seriously and really don't want to put the work into it. I don't have any numbers on this, but I do wonder how many students who plagiarize in first-year composition actually make it through college. I don't think any of us would ever dream of plagiarizing. We're good students. We care about grades. We take classes seriously. But I don't think all students who plagiarize actually do care about grades or take school seriously. Not to be unsympathetic toward the students, but the times I've caught my students plagiarizing in the past, I haven't felt any sympathy for them (okay, maybe once). (By plagiarism here, I'm meaning cases in which the students wrote 0% of what they turned in. Complete purposeful plagiarism).
ReplyDeleteNo matter how we talk about or "construct" student identities in our research and conversation, we'll always be essentializing a diverse group of individuals. I'm sympathetic to the argument that it is unfair to speak pejoratively of our students and I was drawn to your response to the "way some people talk about how "stupid" students are." I'm also sympathetic to the idea that students are consumed with "cultivating their underlives." When I think back to my undergrad experiences, I think about how extra-academic stuff was much more of a priority to me: work, relationships, beer. But this construction of our students is also unfair because many of them are much more academically involved.
ReplyDeleteI also noticed a strong connection between Zwagerman and the piece we read recently by Howard. His realization of "the 'grades can determine my future' mentality seems to parallel Howard's discussion of social and economic capital. Putting these two in conversation might yield something interesting?
Kate, I think your post makes a good move in that it reflects on how you came to be the student/academic/scholar that you are today. I also find it disheartening when our colleagues devalue our students, call them stupid, etc. When I think back to my undergraduate (over a year ago now) I can't think of a single class, assignment that was so tremendously engaging that I suspended my concern for "the grade," which is unfortunate. As Matt writes, academics are only one (small) facet of our students' (especially our freshman's) lives; this is sometimes easy to forget considering how much time that we devote (in graduate school) to our academic work. One final point: I can think of classes, teachers, assignments that were so off-putting as to restrict thought, reduce engagement, provoke downright hostility. So that, even if we must come to the the conclusion that our classrooms are only one "sponsor" of our students overall education/lives, it's not as if we're not having any impact whatsoever.
ReplyDeleteI hope this response still has some bearing on your post...