Plagiarism Due to Cultural Misunderstanding of ESL Students: Higher Education Faculty Members’ Perspectives

Plagiarism continues to be an issue in online and traditional higher education. Previous research discusses the three ways that higher education defines plagiarism being theft, deception, and misunderstanding. While institutions and instructors approach the issue of plagiarism much differently, it has left room for different interpretations of some of the aspects of the plagiarism of misunderstanding. There are three categories of misunderstanding in plagiarism, including cultural, generational, and academic enculturation. This article focuses on the aspect of cultural misunderstanding. The sample consisted of (n = 333) online faculty members. The results displayed significant differences in how faculty members approach plagiarism due to misunderstanding with regards to intentional plagiarism and coaching for English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) or multicultural students.