Cheating as Culture: Insights for Foreign Teachers

When foreign teachers first come to a new country, they usually expect—even look forward to—a different approach to education than what they're used to. So it's interesting that they're often completely unprepared for many of the specific cultural differences they run into in their classrooms. When new American teachers first come to Poland, for example, one of their most frequent (and furious!) cries is. My students are cheating all the time!" Hearing this, the Polish students become confused and angry, and the result is usually a series of ever-worsening misunderstandings that do a lot of damage to student/ teacher relations. But this mutual ill could be easily avoided if only everyone remembered that cheating is a culturally relative matter.

The cultural values of Polish society are reflected in the education system, just like anywhere else. Poland is a group-oriented society, which means that cooperation is strongly emphasized. And although this attitude is very appealing in theory to most Americans, adjusting to the way it's practiced in everyday life can be a major challenge for someone from a society that emphasizes individual responsibility, It's enormously difficult for them to grasp that what they call cheating, Poles call survival.

In a group-oriented society, it's unthinkable to refuse help to a friend in need. It's a survival thing: When a friend needs money, you lend it to him—next week he'll drive you to the train station to pick up your visiting cousins. When a neighbor needs help carrying some new furniture upstairs, you help her—in a month she'll let you use her phone when you've lost your keys and are locked out of your flat in the cold. And when a classmate whispers a desperate question during a test, you answer him—after all, he lent you the book you needed in order to finish your essay last month. How can you refuse?

An American might respond by saying that of course you can refuse—easily!—and that there are a hundred better (and obvious!) solutions to the problem of the desperate classmate than helping him cheat. But 99 of those "better solutions" are only better in the context of a society where the focus is on individual responsibility; and they're only "obvious" to someone who's grown up in an individualist culture and been imbued with its values. For Poles, what's obvious—and better—is concern for the well-being of the whole group and the cooperative bonds that are essential to everyone's survival.

There's another level to the cheating issue as well. The ability to use one's wits to escape from a difficult situation has always been highly valued in Polish culture—doubtless due to historical reasons. Polish history is a history of hardship, invasion and occupation, and Poles have had to rely on their inventiveness to survive, not on wealth or military strength. Cheating at school—especially if it's done successfully or at least creatively is simply one variation on the time-honored skill of worming your way out of a hard spot. And although Polish teachers don't all approve of it, they are much more likely than Americans to look the other way, or even secretly admire it a bit.

Understanding the deep-rooted cultural reasons for cheating may not always help you overcome your gut reactions to it—but it can be useful in finding ways to cope with it. Trying to wipe out the cheating just turns the academic year into a series of bitter battles—and Poles have a lot more experience as resistance fighters than you do, believe me! Instead, I recommend trying some of the techniques that creative Polish instructors use: Instead of declaring war on the cheating, build it into your tests and assignments so that it contributes to the students' education. Before a test, make the preparation of "cheat sheets" a homework assignment or even an in-class group activity—then collect them and grade them before the test. Give group tests and group homework, making it clear that you expect the learners to use each other as educational resources, and that they will be graded collectively. Give open-book tests—after all, it's the information age, and knowing how to access information is a more useful skill than memorizing it! Finally, never assume that it's obvious to the students when you expect completely individual work from them. In a group-oriented culture, this isn't obvious at all.

The issue of cheating is just one example of the kinds of conflicts that can arise in classrooms where two cultures meet. Recognizing these conflicts as cultural differences is the first step towards making them part of the educational experience for everyone in your classroom. But there's a second crucial ingredient as well. It's called tolerance.