Assessment literacy and critical consciousness

This article explores the potential of critical consciousness to transform teachers’ and students’ relationship with educational assessment. Assessment is used as a technology for regulation and control in education. Educational assessment embodies two different and potentially contradictory discourses in the classroom: one where all students are capable learners with potential to develop and grow; and another where some students become winners and losers in a context of limited resources. These discourses are also shaped by social constructions of class, gender, and race, and place significant oppressive pressures on students and teachers. Current conceptions of teacher assessment literacy do not sufficiently prepare teachers to navigate these oppressive pressures and contradictions, and to challenge and resist policies and practices that shape these. The concept of critical consciousness can be used to support the development of greater critical engagement and of teacher activism, in relation to assessment. In this context, the responsibility for change in assessment policies and practices can be organised and distributed between the individual and the collective.