Reconceptualizing academic dishonesty as a struggle for intersubjective recognition: a new theoretical model

Abstract

Renewed interest in academic dishonesty (AD) has occurred as a result of the changes to society and higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite a broad body of research investigating why and how students engage in intentional violations of principles of academic integrity, the causes of these behaviors remain uncertain. In order to fully address the overarching issue of why students engage in academically dishonest practices, social philosophy can be invoked. This article reviews the current research on AD in higher education, and then seeks to develop a new theoretical understanding based on Axel Honneth’s (1995) Theory of Recognition, positing that it is not a moral deficit that drives students to commit such acts, but a struggle for intersubjective recognition and a subtle form of privatized resistance. This offers a universal model for interpreting and understanding the position of the student in higher education, while offering insight into a social pathology, namely, the social pressure that requires higher education to be viewed as an instrumental rather than intrinsic value.