Assessment for Social Justice: Perspectives and Practices within Higher Education

Assessment for learning (AfL) has become an established idea within higher education, based on the evidence that assessment is one of the most powerful drivers of student learning and thus can be harnessed as a means to improve such learning. Assessment for Social Justice extends this idea to look at assessment in higher education through the lens of critical pedagogy and social justice, and as such offers new insights to both fields of enquiry.

The starting premise, adapted from AfL, is that the way in which we devise and practice assessment can and should influence the social justice outcomes of higher education. Looking at a number of different theories of social justice, Jan McArthur explores how alternative theories provide the foundations for different perspectives on what counts as just. McArthur invites the reader to rethink familiar positions on assessment and fairness and seeks to explore the full complexity of a critical theory-inspired notion of social justice. Key to this is the work of third generation critical theorist, Axel Honneth. McArthur takes inspiration from his three realms of mutual recognition to reconsider the nature of assessment relationships and practices. A further theoretical strand is introduced in the form of social practice theory, and particularly the work of Theodore Shatzki. McArthur provides a theoretically rigorous understanding of assessment as a social practice, and as a vehicle both for and against social justice. Together with critical theory this work enables a realizable vision of an alternative approach to assessment in higher education, where the underlying aim is greater social justice.

Assessment for social justice is explored in two complementary ways, the justice of assessment within higher education, and assessment practices that promote greater social justice through the actions and dispositions of graduates. In doing so this book contributes to the ongoing debates about the nature and purposes of higher education.

McArthur argues that students must be nurtured to recognise the social contribution that they can make as a result of engaging with knowledge in higher education, rather than defining their achievements in terms of a mark, grade or degree classification.