Abstract
Assessment policy reform has led to the adoption of a “participatory” framework of assessment in South African higher education. Using a Foucauldian theoretical lens, this article explores the relation between participatory assessment practices in higher education and social control. Empirical evidence is drawn from assessment practices observed in certain lectures in a South African university and interviews with lecturers. Data is analysed through a Foucauldian lens that forges a connection between disciplinary power, control and regulation. The article then describes the technologies of disciplinary power that play out within the participatory assessment practices and demonstrates what these technologies of power do to assessors and students when they become involved in them. The article argues that participatory assessment in some respects epitomises progressive educational themes, yet, when studied with an eye towards power, it reveals deep contradictions and paradoxes.
Reference60 articles.
1. Ball, S. J. 1990. Foucault and Education: Disciplines and Knowledge. New York, NY: Routledge.
2. Banks, S. R. 2012. Classroom Assessment: Issues and Practices. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.
3. Bazeley, P. 2009. “Analysing Qualitative Data: More than ‘Identifying Themes’”. Malaysian Journal of Qualitative Research 2 (2): 6–22.
4. Beets, P. 2009. “Towards Integrated Assessment in South African Higher Education”. In Higher Education in South Africa: A Scholarly Look Behind the Scenes, edited by E. Blitzer, 183–202. Stellenbosch: Sun Media. https://doi.org/10.18820/9781920338183/09.
5. Berry, R., and B. Adamson. 2011. “Assessment Reform Past, Present and Future”. In Assessment Reform in Education: Policy and Practice, edited by R. Berry and B. Adamson, 3–14. Amsterdam: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0729-0_1.