Like Riding a Roller Coaster: University Teachers’ Emotional Experiences Dealing with Student Plagiarism

The topic of research ethics has attracted attention in Chinese higher education, especially with regard to the “crackdown” on plagiarism. Although higher education teachers have implemented various interventions intended to reduce such misconduct, academic malpractice continues to occur. However, few studies have investigated the emotional challenges that these teachers face when dealing with plagiarism and the emotional changes that they experience in the process of addressing such misconduct. To address this research gap, in the current study, interviews, focus group discussions, and teaching journals were employed to investigate the negative emotional experiences of university teachers with student plagiarism in the Chinese context. An inductive thematic analysis was conducted, followed by in-depth analyses. The findings highlighted the fluctuating emotional development of the participating teachers from an ecological perspective, and the influential factors associated with the mitigation of negative emotions for teachers facing challenging situations were examined. The results also highlighted the necessity of taking the initiative to strengthen and normalize academic integrity in tertiary institutions.