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Ethical Assessment Capacity

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Learning to Assess

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Abstract

This book presents a novel framework, Thinking the Unthinkable, aimed at cultivating teacher assessment capacity. The framework includes four fundamental capacities: epistemic, embodied, ethical, and experiential. In this chapter, the ethical capacity is explored through literature, preservice teacher reflections and narratives, and interpretive analysis. At the heart of it, the ethical capacity asks teachers to consider how diversity in their classroom shapes their assessment practice. It considers how teachers plan, make decisions about, and create opportunities for and interpret student agency within and through assessment processes. It also involves socio-cultural considerations within assessment practices, fair distribution of resources for learning and assessment, procedural fairness, equity in assessment, and explicit consideration for the consequences of assessment actions on diverse students and the learning collective. Guiding teachers’ ethical capacity development is the following reflection question: Are my assessment actions and decisions fair for all and socially just? The chapter concludes with guidance for developing ethical capacity in initial teacher education.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada

    Christopher DeLuca

  2. Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, QLD, Australia

    Jill Willis

  3. University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

    Bronwen Cowie

  4. King’s College London, London, UK

    Christine Harrison

  5. Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada

    Andrew Coombs

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  2. Jill Willis
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with Jeanine Gallagher and Kerry Earl Rinehart

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Correspondence to Christopher DeLuca .

Additional information

Jeanine Gallagher

is an education researcher at the Queensland University of Technology (Brisbane, Australia). Her research interests include educational policy for students with disability, teacher work, inclusive practices and learning spaces, and the use of data to inform learning, teaching, and assessment.

Kerry Earl Rinehart

is a Senior Lecturer in Te Kura Toi Tangata, Division of Education, University of Waikato (Hamilton, New Zealand). Her key research interest is in how people’s learning and work are judged through assessment, evaluation, and appraisal, particularly for students, teachers, and school principals. ORCID: 0000-0003-0618-8617

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DeLuca, C., Willis, J., Cowie, B., Harrison, C., Coombs, A., with Jeanine Gallagher and Kerry Earl Rinehart. (2023). Ethical Assessment Capacity. In: Learning to Assess. Teacher Education, Learning Innovation and Accountability. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-6199-3_6

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