Learning, Teaching and Leadership

I have been doing a lot of travelling lately, giving talks on postplagiarsm and academic integrity in the age of generative artificial intelligence. Recently I was at the Calgary airport and ask I was going through the security screening process, I took out my laptop and placed it in the bin to be screened. A staff member pointed to my laptop and asked, “Are you a professor at the University of Calgary?!”

She recognized the laptop sticker. It says #UHaveIntegrity, which is the slogan for our academic integrity campaign at the University of Calgary.

I replied, “Yes! Yes, I am! Are you a student?” She replied yes, that she was a majoring in political science.

It was most inspiring moment I have ever had going through airport security!

Shifting the Conversation

Traditional academic integrity messaging often starts from a deficit model, emphasizing what students should not do and the consequences of misconduct. This approach inadvertently positions students as potential cheaters rather than developing adults.

The #UHaveIntegrity campaign reframes this conversation. We acknowledge and celebrate  students as whole human beings with existing ethical foundations. Our role as educators shifts from policing to supporting their continued development.

From Classroom to Career

Academic integrity transcends assignment submissions and exam protocols. It forms the foundation for ethical decision-making that extends beyond graduation. The research literature demonstrates that students who develop strong ethical frameworks during their education carry these principles into their professional lives (e.g., Guerrero-Dib et al., 2020; Tammeleht et al., 2022).

When we recognize that students already have integrity, we create space for authentic dialogue about ethical challenges rather than simply enforcing rules. Students become active participants in their ethical development rather than passive recipients of policy statements.

Supporting Student Success

The #UHaveIntegrity campaign represents our commitment to supporting student learning and academic success. By starting from a position of trust, we establish educational environments where:

• Students feel empowered to ask questions about citation and collaboration
• Errors become learning opportunities rather than character judgments
• Discussions about integrity focus on growth rather than compliance

Moving Toward Postplagiarism

The #UHaveIntegrity campaign exemplifies what we call postplagiarism pedagogy—an educational approach that moves beyond rule-based instruction to consider how learning, writing, and collaboration can happen ethically in the age of generative AI.

Postplagiarism does not mean ignoring source citation or academic honesty. Instead, it acknowledges that students develop as writers in a world where information flows differently than in previous generations. ChatGPT was released almost two and half years ago, in November 2022. Here we are in 2025 and our historical norms around citing and referencing are inadequate in the age of remix, mashup, and co-creation with GenAI.

By starting from the premise that students have integrity, educators can engage in richer conversations about:

• How knowledge creation occurs in digital environments
• Why proper attribution matters in different contexts
• How collaboration and individual work intersect in contemporary scholarship

In a small-scale study led by my colleague, Dr. Soroush Sabbaghan, we interviewed ten graduate students about their use of GenAI. They told us that they want and need guidance and support to use GenAI ethically. They also wanted agency to use GenAI tools to help them do their research. They wanted GenAI tools to help them amplify their own voices and discover new perspectives. Although our study was small, the findings are worthy of consideration. You can check out the article here if you are interested.

Moving Forward Together

The sticker on my laptop serves as a daily reminder of our responsibility as educators. It’s up to us educators to create learning environments that nurture the integrity students already possess, providing them with the knowledge and skills to navigate increasingly complex ethical landscapes.

The next time you encounter academic integrity challenges in your classroom, remember: your students have integrity. The question is not about instilling values they lack, but supporting their application of existing values to new academic contexts.

#UHaveIntegrity is more than a hashtag. It is our University of Calgary commitment to educational partnerships built on integrity and mutual respect.

University of Calgary Academic Integrity Week 2025

This year at the University of Calgary, we’ll mark Academic Integrity Week from October 14-17. Our themes are artificial intelligence and engaging students as partners in academic integrity. We are excited to engage with students on these important topics!

References

Guerrero-Dib, J. G., Portales, L., & Heredia-Escorza, Y. (2020). Impact of academic integrity on workplace ethical behaviour. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 16(1), 2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-020-0051-3 

Sabbaghan, S., & Eaton, S. E. (2025). Navigating the ethical frontier: Graduate students’ experiences with generative AI-mediated scholarship. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40593-024-00454-6 

Tammeleht, A., Löfström, E., & Rodríguez-Triana, j. M. J. (2022). Facilitating development of research ethics and integrity leadership competencies. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 18(1), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-022-00102-3

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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.