Reconceptualizing Assessment in Initial Teacher Education from a Relational Lens

Abstract

This chapter examines the challenges and possibilities of assessment practices in Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programs. Informed by Bakhtin (1986), speech genres, dialogic approaches and a democratic lens to assessment, the chapter questions the nature and purpose of assessment considering the COVID-19 pandemic. New understanding of the concept of ‘relationality’ through pandemic experience provides opportunities for ‘democratic’ assessment is perceived as a point of departure in the learning process for both students and teachers, and not a destination. This perspective incorporates students’ diverse voices and agency and encourages assessment practices to promote not only instrumental aspects of learning, but also the epistemological and ontological layers of learning and being. Though this conceptual interrogation can be applied to any educational context across programs locally and globally, the focus is on ITE in the Australian context, due to the important role of pre-service teachers in creating and designing assessment practices. The chapter provides case study a example that enabled pre-service teachers to play an active and influential role in the development of assessment artefacts and practices. It concludes by projecting opportunities and challenges to teaching and research practices, locally and globally.