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THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY SOCIAL SCIENCES<br />
weekly office hours to discuss her issues. And no, she had never gone to see her teaching<br />
assistant. And no, she didn’t really understand why, with 400 other students in her section<br />
of the course, I could not just change the due dates on her peer review writing assignments<br />
so that it would work better for her schedule. I finally had to rather abruptly end our conversation<br />
as it became clear that she was prepared to argue her point until I saw it her way.<br />
When I told this story to some colleagues, thinking it must be an anomaly, I found out that<br />
everyone I spoke to had a story of dealing with a “customer” student also.<br />
Historical Perspective and Current Interpretation of Academic<br />
Entitlement<br />
Academic entitlement as an area of study is gaining momentum in educational research.<br />
However, it is not a new topic. An early discussion of students exhibiting entitled behaviour<br />
is found in Morrow’s (1994) article discussing achievement in education within the context<br />
of Apartheid. However, his conclusions are relevant regardless of the context. He explored<br />
the idea of a cultural shift affecting education wherein the focus of education shifts away<br />
from the values of education and toward a more achievement awarded focus. Morrow asks<br />
educators to consider the impact of awarding degrees based on entitlement as opposed to<br />
awarding them based on valid achievement. He further charges educators to consider their<br />
role in the emergence of an educational system driven by entitlement. Morrow stated,<br />
The culture of entitlement, and its enthusiastic support, runs the serious risk of undermining<br />
the very good which it is their objective to obtain. It is incoherent to “delegitimize”<br />
or repudiate educational or <strong>academic</strong> achievements in the name of educational<br />
entitlement. To take the citadel this way would be to destroy the treasure that it contained.<br />
(p.46)<br />
Following Morrow’s 1994 article, research on <strong>academic</strong> entitlement has continued and taken<br />
many directions. Researchers have focused on psychological variables as well as demographic<br />
and behavioural variables related to student entitlement (e.g., Achacoso,2002; Campbell,<br />
Bonacci, Shelton, Exline, & Bushman, 2004; Ciani, Summers, & Easter, 2008; Chowning<br />
& Campbell, 2009; Foster, Campbell, & Twenge, 2003; Greenberger, Lessard, Chen, &<br />
Farruggia, 2008; Hoover, 2007; & Twenge, 2006). The current research covers analysis of<br />
personality, parenting, motivation, and gender. While these studies have all contributed in<br />
different ways to an understanding of <strong>academic</strong> entitlement, there is still much more unknown<br />
than known about the origins and impact of student entitlement.<br />
Singleton-Jackson, et al. (2010) added a current socio-cultural twist to the understanding<br />
of student entitlement by considering the impact of the Millennials on higher education and<br />
the observation of entitled behaviours among students. Millennials are those individuals<br />
born between 1982 and 2002. Millennials started arriving in university classrooms in 2002<br />
and will be part of our student bodies until 2020. At a count of 100 million, “Millennials are<br />
the largest generational cohort in history” (Rickes, 2009, p.8). Howe and Strauss (2007) indicate<br />
that the Millennials will impact higher education as significantly as the Boomers did<br />
in the 1960 though in a different way.<br />
Choice and control paired with a bent toward immediate gratification are often cited in<br />
the literature describing the key characteristics of Millennials. These characteristics neces-<br />
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