This week I did an invited presentation for the European Network for Academic Integrity (ENAI) Integrity for All Working Group.
As part of my presentation, I shared this bibliography of resources that I’ve worked on over the past several years on academic integrity as it relates to equity, diversity, inclusion, accessibility, and decolonization. These topics have become increasingly important to me over the past half decade and it is more important now than it ever has been to elevate the importance of these topics, along with human rights and social justice, when addressing matters of student conduct.
This bibliography contains a list of academic integrity articles, presentations, and resources that focus on these topics.
I’ve done my best to prepare this list according to APA 7 conventions, but please forgive any errors.
I aim to make as much of my content open access. If there is anything on this list that you cannot access, please contact me directly and I’ll see what I can do.
Sarah Elaine Eaton, PhD, is a Professor and Research Chair in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary, Canada. Opinions are my own and do not represent those of my employer.
I started my Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree 37 years ago this September. (Gosh, that’s a long time ago!) Looking back, I was sooo excited to be a university student… and also terrified. I was the first person in my immediate family to attend university. Now, as a professor, I am committed to helping to create pathways to success for students from equity-deserving groups, those who may be from marginalized or underrepresented groups. Part of this includes academic integrity for these students, who may genuinely have no idea when they start their first year of college what is expected of them.
First-generation college students (also called “first in family” students) are those whose parents did not complete a four-year college degree. These students face unique challenges that some folks in higher education may not fully appreciate. As faculty members, we have both an opportunity and responsibility to create more inclusive and supportive learning environments for these students.
Understanding the Barriers
First-generation students often navigate college without the cultural capital and informal knowledge that their peers may take for granted. They may be unfamiliar with academic norms, unsure about when and how to seek help, or struggling to balance college demands with family obligations and work responsibilities. These students may also experience heightened anxiety about whether they belong in academic spaces.
The principles I have advocated for in academic integrity work apply directly here. Existing systems in higher education can create barriers for students who don’t arrive with certain forms of privilege. As I have argued elsewhere, there can be no integrity without equity (Eaton, 2022). When we fail to address systemic barriers, we perpetuate conditions that disadvantage particular student groups.
Practical Strategies for Faculty
These strategies may work for many different student, not just first gen ones, but I would argue that we can be especially attentive to first generation students by taking the following into account:
Make the Implicit Explicit
Academic culture is filled with unspoken rules and expectations. What seems obvious to those of us who have spent years in higher education may be completely foreign to first-generation students. As I have learned from my work on equity and academic integrity, “if the system is invisible to you, that is because it was created for you” (Eaton, 2022, p. 6).
Provide detailed rubrics and examples of successful work: Create comprehensive rubrics that clearly articulate expectations for each level of performance. Include examples of student work that demonstrate different quality levels, with annotations explaining what makes each example effective or ineffective. Consider providing both excellent examples and common mistakes to help students understand the full range of expectations.
Explain the purpose behind assignments, not just the requirements: Help students understand the learning objectives and real-world applications of their coursework. For instance, explain how a research paper develops critical thinking skills, information literacy, and written communication abilities that transfer to professional contexts. This contextual understanding helps students engage more meaningfully with their learning.
Use plain language in syllabi and course materials: Avoid unnecessary jargon and academic terminology that may be unfamiliar to first-generation students. When discipline-specific terms are essential, define them clearly. Review your syllabus annually to identify language that might be confusing or intimidating to newcomers to higher education.
Clarify expectations for participation, email communication, and office hour visits: Explicitly teach students how to write professional emails, including appropriate subject lines, greetings, and tone. Explain what constitutes meaningful class participation beyond simply speaking up. Describe what happens during office hours and provide specific examples of productive topics for discussion.
Build Genuine Relationships
Connection matters. First-generation students benefit tremendously from feeling that faculty care about them as individuals. This mirrors what we know from academic integrity research: students are less likely to engage in misconduct when they believe their instructors care about them (Eaton, 2022).
Learn students’ names and use them regularly: Make a conscious effort to learn and use student names from the first week of class. Consider using name tents, seating charts, or other strategies to help with this process. Using names creates a sense of belonging and demonstrates that you see students as individuals rather than anonymous faces in a crowd.
Share your own educational journey when appropriate: If you were a first-generation student yourself, consider sharing relevant aspects of your experience. Even if you weren’t, you can share challenges you faced and how you overcame them. This vulnerability helps normalize struggle and shows students that difficulty doesn’t indicate inadequacy.
Create opportunities for peer interaction and collaboration: Design activities that help students connect with one another, such as think-pair-share exercises, small group discussions, or collaborative projects. These connections can provide crucial academic and social support throughout their college experience.
Be approachable and normalize help-seeking behavior: Explicitly tell students that asking questions is a sign of engagement, not weakness. Share examples of productive questions from past students. Make yourself available through multiple channels and respond to student inquiries promptly and warmly.
Schedule regular check-ins, particularly with students who seem to be struggling: Proactively reach out to students who have missed classes, submitted late work, or seem disengaged. A simple email expressing concern and offering support can make a significant difference. Consider mid-semester individual conferences with all students to discuss their progress and address any concerns.
Address Financial and Time Pressures
Many first-generation students work multiple jobs or have family caregiving responsibilities. Our course design should acknowledge these realities without compromising academic rigor. In some research that I did with a graduate student on mental wellbeing and academic integrity, we found that students experiencing stress may be more vulnerable to academic misconduct (Eaton & Turner, 2020), making supportive course design even more crucial.
Avoid requiring expensive textbooks when alternatives exist: Explore open educational resources (OERs), library reserves, or older editions of textbooks. If expensive materials are necessary, provide information about rental options, used book sources, or financial aid resources that might help students afford them.
Consider the timing of assignment due dates and major exams: Avoid scheduling major assignments during times when students are likely to face additional stressors, such as midterms week or right before holidays when many students increase their work hours. Provide advance notice of all major assignments and deadlines.
Offer multiple pathways to demonstrate learning: Design assessments that allow students to showcase their knowledge in different ways. This might include options for oral presentations instead of written papers, creative projects alongside traditional exams, or multiple smaller assignments rather than a few high-stakes evaluations.
Build flexibility into attendance policies when appropriate: While maintaining reasonable expectations, consider policies that account for the realities of students who may face transportation issues, work conflicts, or family emergencies. Provide clear guidelines about how to communicate absences and make up missed work.
Connect students with campus resources for emergency financial assistance: Learn about your institution’s emergency funding programs and don’t hesitate to refer students who are struggling financially. Many students are unaware these resources exist or feel uncomfortable accessing them without encouragement from faculty.
Provide Proactive Academic Support
Don’t wait for students to ask for help. The cultural norm of self-advocacy may not be familiar to first-generation students, and they may interpret struggling as evidence that they don’t belong. As research on academic integrity and mental health during COVID-19 has shown, students may experience significant anxiety about academic expectations and performance (Eaton & Turner, 2020).
Introduce campus support services early and repeatedly: Don’t just mention writing support and student success workshops once in your syllabus. Regularly remind students about these resources and explain specifically how they can help with course assignments. Consider inviting representatives from student services to visit your class.
Provide feedback throughout the semester, not just at the end: Offer low-stakes opportunities for students to receive feedback on their work before major assignments are due. This might include draft submissions, peer review sessions, or brief conferences about work in progress.
Connect students with tutoring, writing centers, and peer support programs: Make specific referrals rather than general suggestions. For example, “Based on your draft, I think working with the writing center on thesis development would be helpful. Here’s how to make an appointment, and I recommend mentioning that you’re working on argument structure.”
Offer study strategies and time management guidance: Many first-generation students have never been taught effective study techniques. Provide concrete strategies for reading academic texts, taking notes, preparing for exams, and managing large projects over time.
Explain how to read and interpret feedback on assignments: Students may not understand how to use your comments to improve their work. Consider providing examples of how to revise based on feedback or scheduling brief meetings to discuss your comments on major assignments.
Challenge Deficit Thinking
Resist viewing first-generation students through a deficit lens. Instead, recognize the strengths, resilience, and diverse perspectives they bring to your classroom. This aligns with advocacy for decolonizing academic practices and embracing multiple ways of knowing (Eaton, 2022).
Value different forms of knowledge and experience: Acknowledge that students bring valuable perspectives from their work, family, and community experiences. Create opportunities for students to connect course content to their lived experiences and cultural backgrounds.
Incorporate diverse voices and perspectives in your curriculum: Include authors, researchers, and case studies that reflect diverse backgrounds and experiences. This helps all students see themselves reflected in the curriculum while exposing everyone to broader perspectives.
Create assignments that allow students to draw on their backgrounds: Design projects that invite students to explore topics relevant to their communities or to apply course concepts to contexts they know well. This validates their experiences while helping them see the relevance of academic content.
Resist conflating struggle with inability: Normalize the learning process and help students understand that confusion and difficulty are natural parts of intellectual growth. Share examples of how struggle leads to deeper understanding.
Advocate for institutional changes that support student success: Use your voice in departmental and institutional committees to push for policies and practices that better serve first-generation students. This might include advocating for more flexible scheduling, expanded financial aid, or improved support services.
Practice Cultural Humility
Acknowledge that our own educational experiences may differ significantly from those of our students. Be willing to learn about their perspectives and challenges.
Ask students about their needs rather than making assumptions: Use anonymous surveys or informal check-ins to understand what your students are experiencing. Their insights can help you adjust your teaching to better meet their needs.
Be open to feedback about your teaching practices: Create opportunities for students to provide honest feedback about what’s working and what isn’t. Consider mid-semester evaluations or regular pulse checks to gauge student understanding and engagement.
Recognize the limits of your own knowledge and experience: Be honest about what you don’t know about first-generation student experiences and commit to learning more. Attend professional development sessions, read relevant research, and seek out colleagues who have expertise in this area.
Collaborate with student affairs professionals who specialize in first-generation student support: Build relationships with staff in student success centers, counseling services, and first-generation student programs. They can provide valuable insights and serve as resources for your students.
Beyond Individual Action
Individual faculty efforts are essential, but systemic change is equally important. As I have argued in my work on equity in academic integrity, we must advocate for institutional transformation and systemic change (Eaton, 2022).
Within your department and institution, push for professional development focused on supporting first-generation students, policies that address food insecurity and housing instability, expanded financial aid and emergency funding programs, mentoring programs connecting students with faculty, staff, and successful peers, and recognition systems that value inclusive teaching practices.
The Mental Health Connection
There are connections between academic stress and mental health concerns (Eaton & Turner, 2020). For first-generation students, this stress may be compounded by family pressures, financial worries, and feelings of not belonging. Our rapid review of literature during COVID-19 found that students experienced “amplification of students’ anxiety and stress during the pandemic, especially for matters relating to academic integrity” (Eaton & Turner, 2020, p. 37).
Faculty should be attentive to signs of student distress and prepared to connect students with appropriate campus resources. Creating supportive classroom environments can help mitigate some of these stressors. When students feel valued and supported, they are more likely to seek help when needed rather than struggling in isolation.
A Personal Commitment
Supporting first-generation students requires ongoing commitment to equity and inclusion. It means examining our own practices and assumptions, being willing to change course when needed, and advocating for students both inside and outside our classrooms.
The work of creating equitable educational environments is never finished. As I have written elsewhere, “A commitment to allyship is a life’s work, demonstrated throughout our daily ethical practice as educators, leaders, researchers, and human beings” (Eaton, 2022, p. 6). When we commit to supporting first-generation students, we strengthen our entire academic community and move closer to the ideals of fairness and inclusion that should guide higher education.
As educators, we have the power to significantly impact student success. The question is how we use that power to dismantle existing barriers or to create pathways for all students to thrive.
References
Eaton, S. E. (2022). New priorities for academic integrity: equity, diversity, inclusion, decolonization and Indigenization. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 18(10), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-022-00105-0
Eaton, S. E., & Turner, K. L. (2020). Exploring academic integrity and mental health during COVID-19: Rapid review. Journal of Contemporary Education Theory & Research, 4(1), 35-41. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4256825
Sarah Elaine Eaton, PhD, is a Professor and Research Chair in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary, Canada. Opinions are my own and do not represent those of my employer.
As a new academic year begins here in the northern hemisphere, I’m worried. I am worried that equity-deserving students, including racialized and linguistic-minority students, disabled and neurodivergent students, and others from equity-deserving groups will fall through the cracks again this year.
Conversations about academic integrity often centre around detection and discipline.
How many students will be accused of — and investigated for — academic cheating this year when what they actually needed was learning support? Or language support? Or just a clearer understanding of what academic integrity is and how to uphold it?
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Academic integrity is also about creating a learning environment grounded in fairness and opportunity for every student. Social justice, equity, inclusion, diversity, and accessibility shape how students experience integrity in real ways:
Equity reminds us that students enter the classroom with different levels of preparation and support.
Inclusion ensures every student can participate in learning and assessment.
Accessibility removes barriers that make it harder for some students to meet expectations.
A social justice lens helps us see patterns in who is reported or penalized for breaches of integrity and why.
Here are some actions educators can take in the first month of classes to support student success:
Review course materials to ensure instructions and policies about integrity are written in plain, accessible language.
Dedicate class time to talking with students about what integrity looks like in your course and why it matters.
Share examples of proper citation and collaboration that are relevant to your discipline.
Make time for questions about assessments so students understand what is expected and where to find help.
Connect students early to campus supports such as writing centres, student services, and accessibility services.
This is just a start.
My point is this: Do not assume that students should just know what academic integrity means. Take the time to explain your expectations and policies. In order for students to follow the rules, they need to know what the rules are.
Academic integrity is not only about avoiding plagiarism or cheating. It is also about fostering trust and fairness so that all students have a fair chance to learn and succeed. The choices we make in the first few weeks of the term set the tone for the entire year.
What steps are you taking at the start of this new school year to build a more inclusive and equitable approach to academic integrity?
Sarah Elaine Eaton, PhD, is a Professor and Research Chair in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary, Canada. Opinions are my own and do not represent those of my employer.
Gemini Live is Google’s new conversational AI assistant that responds to voice commands in real-time. Unlike text-based interactions, Gemini Live allows for natural, flowing conversations. This voice-first approach opens new possibilities for accessibility in educational settings. It was released last month, and I just got around to trying it today. Here’s how it went:
I was impressed by the tool’s interactivity and speed. In this test I scanned a laptop sticker with the hashtag #UHaveIntegrity, which is from our academic integrity campaign at the University of Calgary. The app correctly identified it and gave me a brief description.
I did a few subsequent tests with other items afterwards. It did not always have 100% accuracy, but with additional prompting, it corrected errors and provided updated information.
I can think of a variety of uses for this kind of app for teaching and learning. In particular, I am excited about the possibilities to enhance accessibility, inclusion, and equity.
Breaking Down Barriers with Voice Interaction
The voice interface of Gemini Live can remove some barriers for students. Students with mobility limitations, visual impairments, or reading difficulties can participate in learning activities through speech. This creates a more level playing field in the classroom.
Imagine a scenario where a teacher uses Gemini Live to help a student with dyslexia engage with research projects. The student could ask questions verbally and receive information without struggling with text. This hypothetical case illustrates how voice interaction might lead to increased confidence and class participation.
Multilingual Support for Diverse Classrooms
Language barriers often create obstacles in education. Gemini Live supports multiple languages and can translate between them. This feature helps:
Non-native English speakers follow lessons in their first language
International students integrate into new learning environments
Teachers communicate with students from different linguistic backgrounds
Parents who speak other languages stay involved in their children’s education
Learning Accommodations Made Simple
Every student learns differently. Gemini Live can adapt content to different learning needs. Here are some examples:
It can explain complex concepts in simpler terms for students who need additional support
It provides alternative explanations when students don’t understand a topic the first time
It offers audio descriptions of visual content for visually impaired students
It can generate study materials in different formats to match learning preferences
Real-Time Assistance in the Classroom
Teachers often struggle to provide individual attention to every student in a classroom. Gemini Live can serve as an additional resource that students can turn to when they need help. This can reduce wait times and frustration.
As a hypothetical example, a high school math teacher could implement Gemini Live as a ‘homework helper’ station in the classroom. Students who get stuck on problems could ask Gemini Live for guidance without waiting for the teacher to become available. This approach would allow more students to receive timely support while waiting for personalized attention from their teacher.
Digital Equity Through Voice Access
Not all students have equal access to technology or equal ability to use traditional interfaces. Voice technology lowers the technical barriers to using digital tools. Students without keyboards, mice, or touchscreens can still access information and complete assignments through voice commands.
Practical Implementation Tips
In thinking about how we could use use Gemini Live and similar tools for accessibility and inclusion, here are some ideas:
Create specific prompts that students can use to get help with different subjects
Set up dedicated stations where students can interact with Gemini Live
Teach students how to ask effective questions
Combine Gemini Live with other AI tools for a comprehensive accessibility solution
Challenges and Considerations
It is important for teachers to be aware that the tool is not perfect (at least as it currently stands). Although Gemini Live offers benefits, it currently has certain limitations.
Voice recognition may struggle with some speech patterns or accents
Private conversations require appropriate spaces to avoid classroom disruption
Students need guidance on when AI assistance is appropriate and when it isn’t
Technology should supplement, not replace, human teaching and interaction
Looking Forward
As AI assistants like Gemini Live continue to evolve, they will provide even more tools for inclusive education. The most successful classrooms will be those that thoughtfully blend technology with human instruction.
By incorporating Gemini Live into teaching practices, educators can create learning environments that accommodate more students. The goal isn’t just to make education accessible but to ensure every student feels valued and included in the learning process. When we remove barriers to education, we unlock potential — and that’s one of the most fun parts of being an educator.
This blog has had over 3.7 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please ‘Like’ it using the button below or share it on social media. Thanks!
Sarah Elaine Eaton, PhD, is a Professor and Research Chair in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary, Canada. Opinions are my own and do not represent those of my employer.
Just 26.3% of the European Union’s artificial intelligence (AI) professionals are women, according to a report from LinkedIn.
In my work with of the Women for Ethical AI (W4EAI) UNESCO platform, we had similar findings in our gender outlook study.
There are no easy solutions to this gap, but for those working in this area, some five concrete things you can do to promote gender inclusion (and equity in general) are:
Invite women into leadership roles, strategic planing for artificial intelligence and advanced technology.
Ensure that policies explicitly include women, girls, and other equity-deserving groups.
Invite women (and in particular, early career women and those who are precariously employed) to share and showcase their expertise and knowledge (and compensate them for their contributions).
Create formal sponsorship programs for women and girls who want to develop their knowledge and cp-competencies related to AI, with ongoing opportunities for learning and skill development.
There are a myriad of ethical complexities when it comes to artificial intelligence and gender is only one of them. Acknowledging inequalities and then working to support equity, fairness, and justice will remain ongoing work in the years to come.
United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). (2024). UNESCO Women for Ethical AI: Outlook study on artificial intelligence and gender. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000391719
This blog has had over 3.7 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please ‘Like’ it using the button below or share it on social media. Thanks!
Sarah Elaine Eaton, PhD, is a Professor and Research Chair in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary, Canada. Opinions are my own and do not represent those of my employer.
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