The Teacher as Examiner: the case of mathematics coursework

Recent developments in curriculum and assessment in the UK have led to increased involvement of teachers in high‐stakes summative assessment of their own students. Case studies of experienced secondary school mathematics teachers reading and assessing General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) coursework texts show that they experience tensions between their various roles and responsibilities as teachers and as examiners. Moreover, different teachers appear to resolve these tensions in different ways, adopting various positions in relation both to the content of the written coursework texts and to the student‐authors of the texts. Variations in teachers’ approaches to reading and assessing mathematics coursework may lead to differences in the ranks or grades allocated and, even where they do not, the meanings of the grades given by different teachers may be substantially different. Through examining teachers’ assessment practices, questions are raised both about the validity of such assessments and about the compatibility of the coursework examination system with the aims of the curriculum development which gave rise to it.