In Addition to (Or in the Absence of) Guidance: Community College Faculty Perceptions of Academic Integrity

A cornerstone of higher education is academic integrity. As both a concept and a value,
academic integrity is of critical importance to all those who comprise the broad community of a
college or university. However, the higher education landscape is not immune from plagiarism,
cheating, and other acts of dishonesty (Boehm, Justice, & Weeks, 2009) that pose threats to
academic integrity. As a topic of research, the literature has largely explored the issue of
academic integrity within the four-year university setting. Further, research has often examined
academic integrity within the context of the perceptions and actions of students.
In an effort to address a gap in the literature on academic integrity within the
community college setting, this mixed methods study examines community college faculty as it
pertains to their attitudes, perceptions, and understandings of academic integrity. This study
collected data collected from three sources: an online survey distributed to community college
faculty during the Fall 2019 semester, copies of syllabus documents provided by survey
respondents, and follow-up interviews conducted with several of the survey participants. The
quantitative and qualitative data collected from these three instruments were used to address
the study’s four research questions.
Findings from this study revealed that community college faculty hold wide-ranging
perceptions on the topic of academic integrity and that there are differences in how community
college faculty understand and define the term academic integrity. Further, the study found
that there is a discernable difference between how community college faculty discuss academic integrity in their syllabi and how they discuss it with students in the classroom environment.
Lastly, this study found that there is evidence which suggest that full-time community college
faculty promote academic integrity in ways that are different from their part-time colleagues,
due largely to the likelihood that full-time faculty are more aware of resources at their
institution which can be leveraged to help promote academic integrity in the classroom.