Statement on Academic Integrity and Misconduct
(accepted by SKSM Faculty, 12/12/2017)
Starr King School for the Ministry considers the conduct of research and academic scholarship to be moral and political work. Since the beginning of the term’s use in the West, “research” has always been connected to European colonialism as scientists and colonial powers sought to define, appropriate, commodify and disseminate knowledge about indigenous communities as well as exploit nature. Academic research has also been marred by the intersection of sexism, racism, classism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia and Christian supremacist views.
As a part of our purpose in educating to counter oppressions (ECO), we are committed to help our students understand the history of academic inquiry and knowledge production that depends upon and perpetuates colonialism, white supremacy, systemic violence, and multiple forms of oppressions. We actively dispute ideas of neutrality or objectivity in the creation of discourse and the categorization of sources of knowledge as “academic,” “logical,” or “original.”
Engaged in critical pedagogical approaches to research and praxis, we also are committed to teaching our students the history and methodologies of indigenous and emancipatory scholarship across the curriculum. We embrace the notion that what is acceptable or not acceptable knowledge is better determined by a community than by a Western neoliberal framework.
From these commitments, we understand academic integrity to be the intentional and honest practice of inquiry and reflection on one’s own reading, thinking, and writing. This can be further specified as:
Academic integrity requires graduate students to uphold several expectations related to their work:
Academic Conduct
Our school upholds a high standard not only in terms of academic quality appropriate for theological schools, but also with regards to our ECO commitments that extend beyond the minimum expectations for academic conduct and written student work, described above.
Academic misconduct is behavior that violates the minimum expectations of participation in the academic life of the school. Individual incidents of misconduct, including academic misconduct, cause a breaking of trust between a student and their instructor, as well as their fellow students and other members of the school community. We identify behavior or actions as misconduct, when they fit one of the following categories:
Instructors who suspect a student has cheated, fabricated, plagiarized, forged, altered/misused school documents, or facilitated some other form of dishonesty will address the issue with the student directly. If the suspicion is confirmed as a form of misconduct, the instructor will work with the core faculty to determine the best course of action, which could include (but is not limited to) Academic Probation. If the issue is disputed, the student or instructor may follow the procedures listed under “Academic Disputes” in the Student Handbook.
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Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln, “Introduction: Critical Methodologies and Indigenous Inquiry,” in Handbook of Critical and Indigenous Methodologies, edited by Norman K. Denzin, Yvonna S. Lincoln and Linda Tuhiwai Smith, 1-20. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2008.