Systems approach to going forward: Introduction

Abstract

It may be difficult for some readers to imagine positive approaches to academic integrity. Those who experience this challenge may picture a student cheating when they hear the phrase academic integrity, or they may remember a negative experience they had when confronting a student about a cheating incident. The idea of academic integrity as a positive, as the antithesis to cheating, has been slow to gain as much traction as the inaccurate conception of academic integrity as cheating something to be avoided, confronted, or “dealt with.” This section attempts to remind readers that there not only can be positive approaches to academic integrity, but that academic integrity is, itself, a positive. The authors in this section also attempt to remind readers that academic integrity is positively linked to the broader system or cultures in which academic integrity is located’ in individual schools, colleges, and universities; in the educational system; and in society.