Indonesian educators plagued by lack of ethics, plagiarism<\/p>\n
Simon Marcus Gower, Director, Research and Development,
\nHarapan Bangsa School, Kotamodern, Tangerang<\/p>\n
In the annals of literature and learning of the Indonesian
\narchipelago there have been many significant figures that have
\nenlightened and informed the world about this remarkable and
\nwonderful \"string of pearls\" in Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n
Around 300 years ago there was one such significant figure
\nwhose contributions to learning and literature have since become
\ninfamous, because this particular character would willfully
\nplagiarize and basically steal much of his material from other
\nwriters.<\/p>\n
Francois Valentijn was a Dutchman who left the Netherlands,
\nfor what is now Indonesia, essentially to seek his fortune. As a
\nresult of his time on the islands in the late 17th and early 18th
\ncenturies he produced a descriptive work that is widely viewed as
\nan excellent guide to the archipelago at that time, namely Oud en
\nNieuw Oost-Indien or the Old and New East-Indies.<\/p>\n
Although being widely viewed as an important contribution to
\nthe history and literature of the islands, it is equally widely
\nviewed as almost completely plagiarized<\/p>\n
Yet there are still many who plagiarize their material and
\ngladly claim honors and rewards leaving people with the belief
\nthat they have seen or heard something original.<\/p>\n
What is most sad is that so many of the people who so
\nwillingly plagiarize are engaged in the world of education.
\nPlagiarism is contemptible and unwanted but epecially in the
\ncontext of education the loathsome nature of plagiarism is many
\ntimes more offensive and completely without redemption.<\/p>\n
An apparent \"training\" seminar organized for school principals
\nalong with their senior teaching staff featured a speaker that
\nwas to present ideas about organizing successful meetings and
\nexercising good leadership within meetings.<\/p>\n
From the ideas that he was presenting to the handouts that he
\nwas providing and the slides that he was showing, an ability to
\ncopy was certainly on display but there was simply little or no
\nsign of originality in thought or even interpretation.<\/p>\n
At an education conference in which apparent leaders of
\neducation in Jakarta were set to meet and discuss the development
\nof Indonesian education, a speaker gave a speech that was quite
\ncaptivating for his audience. Although clearly using a text he
\nshowed some ability to extemporize and responded well to
\nquestions; but there was a familiarity to much of what he was
\nsaying. Once the text of his speech was read that familiarity
\nbecame understandable because, once again, what had been
\nwitnessed was not original thought.<\/p>\n
The text revealed that much of his material had been gathered
\nfrom other thinkers and writers but he had failed to genuinely
\nacknowledge them with a full bibliography. He had claimed their
\nthinking to be his own.<\/p>\n
This kind of behavior does rub off on students. For example, a
\ngroup of second year university students were set a task to
\ncomplete a research paper that would require them to examine the
\nwork of eminent academics and researchers within their field of
\nstudy. It became clear that they had no understanding of
\nreferencing sources, that would provide evidence that they had
\ndone the necessary research. What they produced instead was a
\npaper that assimilated the work of others without any
\naccreditation and even included quotations that did not have
\ndetails of the person that made the original statement or remark.<\/p>\n
In essence, then, these students were unable to represent
\ntheir own research efforts and, either consciously or
\nsubconsciously, they were guilty of plagiarism in preparing their
\nwork. It is quite likely that they were blameless because if no
\none has ever shown them how to cite references and acknowledge
\nquotations and all of their teachers have, to lesser or greater
\ndegrees, been guilty of plagiarism, they are quite likely to fall
\ninto this trap.<\/p>\n
The world of education and learning needs to have a sense of
\nrespect for originality of thought and the contribution to
\nknowledge. In a sense there should exist within all educators an
\nunwritten but fully recognized and upheld honor code that holds
\nplagiarism in contempt. This kind of code and its accompanying
\nhigher standard of ethics should make plagiarism an alien and
\nrepugnant thought for all educators.<\/p>\n
Presently though, as the above examples have illustrated, this
\ndoes not seem to be fully the case. Of course, economic realities
\nmay have to be factored into the equation here, in the sense that
\nit might be economically expedient for some educators to be able
\nto \"sell themselves\" through seminars and speeches whilst in fact
\nplagiarizing and essentially selling someone else's ideas and
\nthoughts. But expediency should not be placed above principle and
\nresponsibility and educators, in particular, have to have high
\nprinciples and are by definition in positions of responsibility.<\/p>\n
It is to be hoped that Indonesian educators will be held in
\nhigher regard than the above Valentijn. They will need to develop
\ngreater originality so that they can maintain high professional
\nethics and sweep away the plagiarism that currently seems to
\nbedevil them.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/indonesian-educators-plagued-by-lack-of-ethics-plagiarism-1447893297",
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