Post-pandemic assessment policies in Nova Scotia: ideals of students amid centralization and economic priorities

Assessment policies contribute to the discussion of broad and perpetual societal change. Since the previous assessment policies were in place, the Nova Scotia provincial government has made a series of moves to centralize authority in the province, creating renewed interest in revisiting current local assessment policy in the public education system. As this case study illustrates, the new classroom assessment policies can be understood as a call for change not only in assessment practices but also in the kinds of knowledge and skills that are valued in classrooms and the ideals for young people within the policies. This kind of analytic work can help educators understand how assessment policies and practices help to shape future kinds of citizens. The theoretical framework of identity constitution in poststructuralism directed the aims of this study. The analysis identifies an ideal subject position, the service worker, who is vested in future employment and is positioned between the tensions of liberation and subjugation. The analysis helps educators think through the effects of their assessment practices in their classrooms, especially in regard to issues concerning the constitution of young people’s identities within and beyond our schools in a time of centralization and economic priorities.