> I've personally never witnessed any cheating, heard any friends or
students even allude to doing so, I never cheated myself and I can't
even comprehend how you would cheat at most of the coursework I did
in uni in Sweden.
For most of my life I would've been frightened to even say so, or risk
accusations of being a "swot", "teachers pet" or as the Aussies call
it, "a tall poppy".
But the attitude that it's "normal" to cheat is common within
US/UK/AUS culture now. Truth is I always considered cheating beneath
me and was simply _WAY_ ahead of every class I ever took - but you
can't say that in "polite" US/UK culture - one cannot be too pious and
clean-cut, one must seem little bit like "everybody else" - even if
everybody else is not really like that, if that makes sense.
So actually I've taught at universities in Sweden (Stockholm) and
Finland (Helsinki) and notice similar attitudes to those you say. But
those cultures aren't without dirty hands either. Here's the weird
thing: Tall Poppy Syndrome is culturally closest to Jante Law [1], a
Scandinavian ethos of "Don't think you're better than anyone else"
which is precisely the corrosive culture that means people cheat
because everybody else is cheating and causes a downward spiral or
race to the bottom.
"When you've done your very best
When things turn out unpleasant
When the best of men take bribes
Isn't it the fool who doesn't?"
-- Human League 1978
It wasn't until I became a professor that I even knew this dynamic
existed, but now I see it everywhere, not just in school.
To clarify, I'm not saying I would never cheat. Rather that cheating meant more complications and risks than completing my coursework in the way it was intended.
If we were given take-home multiple choice forms to be judged by I'm certain people would cheat. But I've never seen that, possibly because it feels like a pretty lousy (and lazy) way of evaluating and educating students.
For most of my life I would've been frightened to even say so, or risk accusations of being a "swot", "teachers pet" or as the Aussies call it, "a tall poppy".
But the attitude that it's "normal" to cheat is common within US/UK/AUS culture now. Truth is I always considered cheating beneath me and was simply _WAY_ ahead of every class I ever took - but you can't say that in "polite" US/UK culture - one cannot be too pious and clean-cut, one must seem little bit like "everybody else" - even if everybody else is not really like that, if that makes sense.
So actually I've taught at universities in Sweden (Stockholm) and Finland (Helsinki) and notice similar attitudes to those you say. But those cultures aren't without dirty hands either. Here's the weird thing: Tall Poppy Syndrome is culturally closest to Jante Law [1], a Scandinavian ethos of "Don't think you're better than anyone else" which is precisely the corrosive culture that means people cheat because everybody else is cheating and causes a downward spiral or race to the bottom.
It wasn't until I became a professor that I even knew this dynamic existed, but now I see it everywhere, not just in school.[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Jante