'White pages' in the academy: Plagiarism, consumption and racist rationalities Export

@article{citeulike:1137742, author = {Saltmarsh, Sue}, citeulike-article-id = {1137742}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://www.ojs.unisa.edu.au/journals/index.php/IJEI/article/view/17}, comment = {What has been described as the "invisible hand" of the market is actually "a gendered and racialised body of wealth whose global dominance has been secured by Western nations through successive generations of colonial expansion and exploitation" (5). The economics of international students in Australian universities is an issue in contest (1). Academic capitalism Others international students; "the logic of racism implicitly functions as a [Foucauldian] 'technology of power' that demarcates the boundaries of capitalist power in Western societies" (2). The current "moral panic" over plagiarism may actually be a means of bracketing international students within the universities that need their tuition dollars (6). Even though "local" students confess to high rates of cheating, it is the international students' cheating that the media focus on (7-8). Education has become "a site of economic, rather than pedagogic and epistemological social production." Universities are increasingly commodified, their funding increasingly inadequate. In response, "universities have developed increasingly corporatised internal structures, in which market values of competition, self-sufficiency, and profitability continue to alter the organisational cultures, workplace practices, and institutional aims of universities." Distance education is a standard option for pursuing this agenda(3). Certeau argues that consumption is a form of production. "Consumption, for Certeau, is a form of production manifested not 'through products, but rather through its ways of using the products imposed by a dominant economic order.'" From this viewpoint, plagiarism may be regarded as a "productive activity" of the student-as-consumer (4). This concept is "particularly useful to discussions of racist logics within (and indeed, beyond) the academy, are the moral panics that emerge in response to what is widely perceived and constructed as a racialised reconfiguring of the product by non-Western student consumers in ways that cause the educational product to lose status and value according to Western rationalities of status and worth" (4-5). "Discourses of racialised 'Others' of the education market, together with the discursive visibility associated particularly with language use, it is argued, disproportionately mark out international students as those primarily associated with illicit practices such as plagiarism." [This very phenomenon is illustrated in the article "Lincoln must deal firmly with cheating or risk damaging its reputation," bookmarked on del.icio.us.] What should be recognized as differences in cultural values and practices is instead represented as moral deficiency, low language skills, or low motivation. Any efforts to adapt the curriculum to the needs of L2 students is interpreted as a lowering of standards (5). "While I am not suggesting that some of the issues raised in these articles are without basis and therefore do not merit careful consideration, what I am suggesting is that the pervasive assumption that international students are primarily the students associated with plagiarism and poor academic performance can be seen as part of a racist logic predicated on racialised notions of ability, deviance and moral deficit" (7). When one academic advocated an all-white Australian university, the discussion quickly shifted from "the historical, institutional and cultural racism at its core" to the "individualising and de-racialised notions of 'free speech' and 'academic freedom.'" Such slippages are typical of race-based debates in higher education (2). Quotes Certeau: "[F]or the past three centuries learning to write has been the very definition of entering into a capitalist and conquering society" (3). Major sources: Foucault's *Discipline \& Punish*; Certeau's *Practice of Everyday Life*.}, journal = {International Journal for Educational Integrity}, keywords = {712, ai, certeau, de, economics, foucault, gatekeeping, globalization, plagiarism, race}, number = {1}, posted-at = {2007-03-03 08:32:15}, priority = {0}, title = {'White pages' in the academy: Plagiarism, consumption and racist rationalities}, url = {http://www.ojs.unisa.edu.au/journals/index.php/IJEI/article/view/17}, volume = {1}, year = {2005} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:1137742 L3 - citeulike-article-id:1137742 IS - 1 JF - International Journal for Educational Integrity TI - 'White pages' in the academy: Plagiarism, consumption and racist rationalities VL - 1 KW - 712 KW - ai KW - certeau KW - de KW - economics KW - foucault KW - gatekeeping KW - globalization KW - plagiarism KW - race N1 - What has been described as the "invisible hand" of the market is actually "a gendered and racialised body of wealth whose global dominance has been secured by Western nations through successive generations of colonial expansion and exploitation" (5). The economics of international students in Australian universities is an issue in contest (1). Academic capitalism Others international students; "the logic of racism implicitly functions as a [Foucauldian] 'technology of power' that demarcates the boundaries of capitalist power in Western societies" (2). The current "moral panic" over plagiarism may actually be a means of bracketing international students within the universities that need their tuition dollars (6). Even though "local" students confess to high rates of cheating, it is the international students' cheating that the media focus on (7-8). Education has become "a site of economic, rather than pedagogic and epistemological social production." Universities are increasingly commodified, their funding increasingly inadequate. In response, "universities have developed increasingly corporatised internal structures, in which market values of competition, self-sufficiency, and profitability continue to alter the organisational cultures, workplace practices, and institutional aims of universities." Distance education is a standard option for pursuing this agenda(3). Certeau argues that consumption is a form of production. "Consumption, for Certeau, is a form of production manifested not 'through products, but rather through its ways of using the products imposed by a dominant economic order.'" From this viewpoint, plagiarism may be regarded as a "productive activity" of the student-as-consumer (4). This concept is "particularly useful to discussions of racist logics within (and indeed, beyond) the academy, are the moral panics that emerge in response to what is widely perceived and constructed as a racialised reconfiguring of the product by non-Western student consumers in ways that cause the educational product to lose status and value according to Western rationalities of status and worth" (4-5). "Discourses of racialised 'Others' of the education market, together with the discursive visibility associated particularly with language use, it is argued, disproportionately mark out international students as those primarily associated with illicit practices such as plagiarism." [This very phenomenon is illustrated in the article "Lincoln must deal firmly with cheating or risk damaging its reputation," bookmarked on del.icio.us.] What should be recognized as differences in cultural values and practices is instead represented as moral deficiency, low language skills, or low motivation. Any efforts to adapt the curriculum to the needs of L2 students is interpreted as a lowering of standards (5). "While I am not suggesting that some of the issues raised in these articles are without basis and therefore do not merit careful consideration, what I am suggesting is that the pervasive assumption that international students are primarily the students associated with plagiarism and poor academic performance can be seen as part of a racist logic predicated on racialised notions of ability, deviance and moral deficit" (7). When one academic advocated an all-white Australian university, the discussion quickly shifted from "the historical, institutional and cultural racism at its core" to the "individualising and de-racialised notions of 'free speech' and 'academic freedom.'" Such slippages are typical of race-based debates in higher education (2). Quotes Certeau: "[F]or the past three centuries learning to write has been the very definition of entering into a capitalist and conquering society" (3). Major sources: Foucault's *Discipline & Punish*; Certeau's *Practice of Everyday Life*. AU - Saltmarsh, Sue PY - 2005/// UR - http://www.ojs.unisa.edu.au/journals/index.php/IJEI/article/view/17 ER -