The Challenges of Academic Incivility: Social-Emotional Competencies and Redesign of Learning Environments as Remedies

131 Pages·2020·1.88 MB·English

by  Yariv Itzkovich, Dorit Alt, Niva Dolev

SPRINGER BRIEFS IN EDUCATION
Yariv Itzkovich
Dorit Alt
Niva Dolev
The Challenges
of Academic Incivility
Social-Emotional
Competencies and
Redesign of Learning
Environments as
Remedies
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Yariv Itzkovich Dorit Alt Niva Dolev
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The Challenges of Academic
Incivility
Social-Emotional Competencies and Redesign
of Learning Environments as Remedies
123
YarivItzkovich Dorit Alt
Human ResourceManagement Department Education andCommunityDepartment
Kinneret CollegeontheSea of Galilee Kinneret CollegeontheSea of Galilee
JordanValley, Israel JordanValley, Israel
NivaDolev
Education andCommunityDepartment
Kinneret CollegeontheSea of Galilee
JordanValley, Israel
ISSN 2211-1921 ISSN 2211-193X (electronic)
SpringerBriefs inEducation
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Preface
Allideashaveastartingpoint,apointintimewhentheywerefirstconceived.Inthe
case of this book, the ideas that are presented were conceived at three starting
points, corresponding to the three authors.
Foroneoftheauthors,thefoundationsofthisbookwerelaid14yearsagowitha
search for a theme for his Ph.D. dissertation. At that point in time, a paper by
AnderssonandPearson(1999)broughtashiftintheauthor’sfocusfromthestudy
of organizational misbehaviors to the study of incivility. This, in turn, became not
only an academic pursuit but also a passion for helping people and making a
difference, both in theory and in practice.
The second path began with a desire to make a difference in education and to
sparkandmaintaininterest,enthusiasmandinvolvementofstudentsinlearning.In
particular, the author was motivated to focus on constructivist learning environ-
ments asameans toenhancethecompetencies needed tocope with thechallenges
of the twenty-first century and beyond.
The third path was embarked upon while attending a seminar on Emotional
Intelligence(EI),soonafterGoleman(1995)hadpublishedhisseminalbookonthe
subject. Goleman’s presentation of his pioneering work in the field of EI gave a
name to the intuitive belief that personal, social and emotional skills constitute a
criticalsetofskillsforsuccessinschools,organizationsandlifeingeneral.Forthe
third author, the study of EI, including its potential to mitigate incivility through
cultivating positive skills and attitudes, became a passion as well as an academic
and practical pursuit.
Themanychallengesandopportunitiesintoday’sacademicworldmotivatedus
to delve deeper into studying incivility, a type of interpersonal deviant organiza-
tional behavior within the framework of higher education. We believe that miti-
gating incivility in academia is a must for educators and students alike in order to
cope with the future of education, its challenges and opportunities.
Ourpointofdeparture wasVaughan’s(1999)studyofdeviantbehaviors,where
all aspects of such behaviors in organizations, including learning institutes, were
referred to as the ‘dark side’ of organizations. In her work, the term ‘dark side’
conveyed two prominent characteristics of deviant behaviors, namely, the dark
v
vi Preface
manifestations of human behaviors as well as the intentional disregard of these
behaviors in organizations. Indeed, most of the behaviors and topics which the
present book brings to light were ignored, shadowed, or kept in the dark for many
yearsandwereonlybroughtintothespotlightasatopicofinternationalresearchin
the mid-1990s.
Thetheoreticalboundariesofthesedarkattitudesandbehaviorsarewide-ranging.
Broadly,suchbehaviorscanbedividedintotwomaincategories,correspondingto
two distinct paths. The first theoretical and empirical path deals with sabotage,
destructiveness and reduced productivity, all of which are aimed to damage the
organization.Thesecond iscenteredoninterpersonal misconduct inorganizations.
Wechosetofocusonthesecondpathandtodiscussincivilityinacademia,whichis
a manifestation ofinterpersonal misconduct inorganizations of higher education.
This book is divided into three parts. In the first part, we define academic
incivility, its manifestations and dimensions, while distinguishing between aca-
demicincivilityandworkplaceincivility.Wethendiscusstheprevalenceoffaculty
incivility (FI) and students’ incivility (SI) in academic settings and focus on the
dyadic relationships between faculty and students in the broader context of inci-
vility in academia, with an added focus on faculty incivility.
Thesecondpartintroducesthemaincontributorstoacademicincivility.Several
personal and contextual factors, namely social-emotional competencies, and
learningenvironments,respectively,areexploredbycombiningup-to-dateresearch
data, personal stories and interviews with lecturers and students. A deep under-
standing of the precursors of academic incivility is critical to the examination of
possible coping strategies within academic settings and elsewhere.
Inthethirdpart,weexplorethepotentialandpracticalremediesthatcanmitigate
incivilityinacademicsettingsand,inparticular,theenhancementofemotionaland
social competencies and the modification of learning environments.
Incivility is a negative emotional experience which takes place in learning and
teaching contexts that are rife with relationships and emotions. Emotional and
socialpersonalskillsarethereforesuggestedtoplayaroleintheacademicincivility
experience.Astheseskillscanbeintentionallyenhanced,theusageandpromotion
of Emotional Intelligence (EI) skills and competencies among students and faculty
in academic settings is first examined. Developing EI skills is expected to reduce
perpetrators’uncivilbehaviorsandprovidetargetswithabufferagainsttheimpacts
of incivility. Accordingly, we present here up-to-date practical methods of devel-
oping EI in the context of higher education.
Secondly, we demonstrate how the implementation of constructivist learning
environments, in contrast with traditional learning environments, can foster a civil
learning climate. We also explore different ways to foster the restructuring of
learning based on several EU Erasmus+ projects that were successfully imple-
mented in recent years (Alt & Raichel, 2018).
Generally, this book is directed towards understanding and preventing destruc-
tiveinterpersonalbehaviorsand,inparticular,inacademicsettings.Webelievethat
the ideas and practices that are introduced and described here may be of value to
practitioners,facultyandstudentswhoseeknotonlytounderstandthephenomenon
Preface vii
ofacademicincivilitybutalsotodealwithandpreventthesedestructivebehaviors
within educational systems.
While writing the book, the three of us embarked on a journey through
wide-ranging theoretical and empirical landscapes, bringing together emotional,
pedagogicalandorganizationalperspectives.Wewereabletomergetheseperspec-
tivesintoasingle,coherentframeworkthatclarifiestherootcausesofincivilityand
providesmeasuresformitigatingandcopingwithincivilityintheacademicworld.
Itisoursincerebeliefthatresearchersshouldattempttoproducechangesin real
life.Thisisespeciallytruewhenfacedwithincivility,asuncivilbehaviorsseverely
and negatively impact the lives of individuals and organizations. This book was
written with the intention to make such a change.
Jordan Valley, Israel Yariv Itzkovich
Dorit Alt
Niva Dolev
References
Alt, D., & Raichel, N. (2018). Lifelong citizenship: Lifelong learning as a lever for moral and
democraticvalues.Leiden&Boston:BrillandSensePublishers.
Andersson, L. M. & Pearson, C. M. (1999). Tit for tat? The spiraling effect of incivility in the
workplace.AcademyofManagementReview,24(3),452–471.http://doi.org/10.2307/259136
Goleman,D.(1995).EmotionalIntelligence.NewYork,NY:BantamBooks.
Vaughan,D.(1999).TheDarksideoforganizations:Mistake,misconduct,anddisaster.Annual
ReviewofSociology,25(1974),271–305.http://doi.org/10.2307/223506
Contents
Part I The Foundations of Academic Incivility
1 An Introduction to the Dark Side of Organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2 Interpersonal Mistreatment—Definitions of Offensive Behaviors . . . 7
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3 Academic Incivility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Student incivility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Faculty incivility (FI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Faculty-to-students incivility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Part II Precursors of Academic Incivility
4 Personal Precursors of Academic Incivility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Emotional Intelligence and Social-Emotional Competencies . . . . . . . . . 35
The Foundations of Emotional Intelligence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Emotional Intelligence and Professional and Personal Outcomes . . . . 40
Emotional Intelligence and Higher Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Emotional Intelligence and Higher Education Students. . . . . . . . . . 42
Emotional Intelligence, Teachers and Higher Education Faculty. . . . . 43
Emotional Intelligence and Incivility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
EI and Perpetrators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Incivility and Self-regulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Incivility and Empathy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Incivility and Stress Tolerance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Incivility and Self-regard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Incivility Victimization and Emotional Intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
ix
x Contents
Incivility Victimization and Stress Tolerance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Incivility Victimization, Empathy and Interpersonal Relationships . . . 57
Incivility Victimization and Self-efficacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Incivility Victimization and Impulse Control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Incivility—Negative Impacts on EI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Negative Affect/Positive Affect—The Foundation of Emotional
Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Psychological Contract Violation—A Process that Underlies
Incivility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
5 Learning Environments as Precursors of Academic Incivility. . . . . . 79
Traditional Learning Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Traditional Pedagogy as a Platform for Academic
(Faculty and Student) Incivility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Instructional Activities (Lecture-Based Settings) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Ineffective Classroom Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Learning Disabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Language Barriers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Part III Remedies—How to Cope with Academic Incivility
6 Emotional Intelligence as a Remedy for Academic Incivility. . . . . . . 93
EI Development as a Remedy for Incivility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
EI Development in Students of Higher Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
EI Development in Faculty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
How to Design Effective EI Training Programs—Practical
Aspects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Integration of EI Training Programs Into High Education
Curricula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Integrated EI Training Programs and Their Impact on Incivility. . . . . 102
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
7 Tackling Academic Incivility by Shifting the Focus
to Student-Centered Pedagogical Approaches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
The Main Tenets of Constructivist Pedagogy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Constructivist Pedagogy: Transforming Power Relationships
in the Classroom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Constructivist Pedagogy and Academic Incivility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Constructivist Pedagogy: Confronting Millennial Students’
Incivility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Methods to Narrow the Hierarchical Gap Between Teachers
and Students. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Epilogue.. .... .... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 123
References . .... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 126