Qualitative inquiry of the impact of student-faculty interaction on academic dishonesty in the community college

Includes bibliographical references (pages 114-126)The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the faculty-student relationship on academic dishonesty and develop an explanatory model about the impact of student-faculty interaction on cheating. Individual, confidential interviews pertaining to student-faculty interaction and academic dishonesty were conducted with 10 students and 11 faculty members at a large, ethnically diverse community college in California. The interviews include the recounting of acts of cheating, types and frequency of student-faculty interaction, the effects of student-faculty interaction on academic dishonesty, and the effects that academic dishonesty can have on student-faculty interaction, especially after an incident has occurred. Five themes emerged during data analysis: academic dishonesty elicits a range of emotions for both professors and students; cheating has a negative effect on interaction between professors and students; a lack of connection by professors between student-faculty interaction and academic dishonesty; students underestimate the value of student-faculty interaction; and professors spend energy trying to prevent students from cheating, with varying degrees of success. After examining the data, a theoretical explanation about the impact of student-faculty relationships was developed that could be applied to community colleges of a similar size and demographic. An I-P-O (input, process, and outcome) model was used in which the students and faculty were the input, their interaction was the process, and the students??? likelihood to cheat was the outcome. The model demonstrated that positive student-faculty has the potential to foster respect for the professor, thus prompting students to try harder, which could reduce the need or desire to commit academic dishonesty