Educational Assessment and Inclusive Education: Paradoxes, Perspectives and Potentialities

Description

This book brings together policymaker and practitioner knowledge, experiences, and perspectives on the interaction between the assessment and inclusion agenda to the fore. The book’s analysis is built on comparative qualitative data from five different countries on four continents: Argentina, China, Denmark, England, and Israel. These countries have been chosen for their distinctive, and even contrasting, education policies, sociocultural and economic circumstances, and variations in performance across supranational and national standardised student assessments. In addressing these specific contexts, the book provides insights into the pitfalls and synergies which emerge as key stakeholders attempt to mediate these two educational concerns in both policy and practice.  Foreword. Between testing and inclusion, between schooling and education Acknowledgements Contents About the Authors List of Figures List of Tables Chapter 1: Introducing a Research Agenda 1 Introduction 1.1 The Paradox Between Assessment and Inclusive Education 2 Approaching the Concepts of Assessment and Inclusive Education 3 Assessment and Inclusive Education: A Multi-layered Dilemma 3.1 The Layer of Society and the Production of Citizens 3.2 The Layer of Competing Purposes of Education 4 Selecting and Introducing the Case Countries 4.1 Argentina 4.2 China 4.3 Denmark 4.4 England 4.5 Israel 5 Chapter Introduction References Education and Democracy Chapter 2: Researching Educational Assessment and Inclusive Education 1 Introduction 2 Engaging with the Research Fields of Assessment and Inclusive Education 2.1 Research Encampments and Paradigms 3 Research Design and Methodological Considerations 3.1 Theoretical Underpinnings: Approaching and Investigating Context 3.2 Theoretical Underpinnings: The Comparative Dimension 3.3 Research Design and Methodology 3.4 Identification and Selection of Empirical Sources 3.5 Data Analysis 3.6 Unexpected Change to Online Research Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic 3.7 Challenges of Engaging with Interviewees References Chapter 3: Unpacking Layers of Assessment and Inclusive Education in National Settings: Links and Disconnections in Policy and Practice 1 Introduction 1.1 The Global Assessment Agenda: Historical Developments and Purposes 1.2 The Global Inclusion Agenda: Historical Developments and Purposes 2 Assessment and Inclusion Policies in the Five Case Countries 2.1 Argentina 2.2 China 2.3 Denmark 2.4 England 2.5 Israel 3 Intersections of Assessment and Inclusion in Policy and Practice in the Case Contexts 3.1 The Argentina Case Assemblages 3.2 The China Case Assemblages 3.3 The Denmark Case Assemblages 3.4 The England Case Assemblages 3.5 The Israel Case Assemblages 4 Concluding Discussion: Comparative Musings References Chapter 4: Changes in the Organisational Assemblage of Schooling: Recontextualising the Problems of Assessment and Inclusion 1 Introduction 2 Problematising Education in the Global Economy 3 The Neoliberal Agenda for Education: Answering Questions of Equity and Excellence Through Governance Reform 3.1 The Problem of State Inefficiency and Ineffectiveness 3.2 Decentralisation: The “Quiet” Answer in Education 3.3 Promises of Equity and Excellence: National Trajectories in Decentralisation Reforms 3.4 School Choice as Inclusion and Exclusion 4 The Return of the State in National Assessment and Inclusion Policies 5 The New Management of Assessment and Inclusion in Schools 5.1 Argentina: The Educational Guidance Team and Integrative Teachers 5.2 China: Hierarchies of Assessment and Inclusive Education 5.3 Denmark: The Principal, the Inclusion Supervisor, and Inclusion Teachers 5.4 England: Assistant Headteachers and the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) 5.5 Israel: Evaluation and Inclusion Coordinators 6 Concluding Discussion: The Limits of Markets and Managerialism and the Potentialities of School Communities for Assessment and Inclusion References Chapter 5: Images of Accountability: From Responsible Professional Practices to the Hyperrealities of Assessment and Inclusion 1 Introduction 2 Semantic Shifts in and Between Professional Accountability for Student and School Performance 3 Simulacra and the Hyperrealities of Accountability 4 Painting by Numbers: How Schools and Systems Are Created Through Hyperreal Images of Success 4.1 England 4.1.1 Ofsted 4.1.2 School League Tables 4.1.3 School and Policymaker Experiences of Accountability 4.1.4 The Global Reach of Professional Responsibilities and Accountabilities 4.2 Denmark 4.2.1 School and Policymaker Experiences of Accountability 4.3 Israel 4.3.1 School and Policymaker Experiences of Accountability 4.4 China 4.5 Argentina 5 Concluding Discussion References A “Paternalistic” Attitude: The Publication of Assessment Results in Israel Chapter 6: Leading Inclusive Schools: From the Effectiveness of the Individual to L’affect of Collectivities 1 Introduction 2 Between the School and the System: Shifts in the Boundaries of Successful Leadership 3 From Effect to Affect: The Making of Agency Through Collective Encounters 4 Becoming Leaders: Exploring the Latitude of School Leadership in the Wider Governance Context 4.1 Leading Assessment and Inclusion: Processes of Segmentary or Rupture? 4.1.1 England 4.1.2 Denmark 4.1.3 China 4.1.4 Argentina 4.1.5 Israel 5 Concluding Discussion References Moral Leadership in China Chapter 7: Becoming Teachers: Assessment and Inclusion in Professional Practices and Subjectivities 1 Introduction 2 Teachers’ Work at the Sharp End of Global Policy Agendas 3 Assessment and Inclusion as Educational Governmentalities 4 Teachers’ Nomadic Subjectivities 5 Teachers’ Multiple Becomings Between the Dilemmas of Assessment and Inclusion 5.1 First Dilemma: The Inclusion Mandate and Teachers’ Pedagogical Possibilities 5.1.1 The Call to Be Inclusion Heroes Without Training in Inclusive Pedagogies 5.1.2 Time as the Bottleneck for Inclusion 5.1.3 Collaborative Practices for Classroom and School Inclusion 5.2 Second Dilemma: The Assessment Mandate and Teachers as Data Producers 5.2.1 A Subjectivity Between Data Production and Professional Judgement 5.2.2 The Assessment Mandate Metamorphosed 5.3 Third Dilemma: Teaching Between the Growing Governmentalities of Inclusion and Assessment 6 Concluding Discussion References Gender Education and Diversity in Argentina Chapter 8: Students: Who Is in and Who Is Out as a Result of Policies and Practices in the Assemblages of Assessment and Inclusion? 1 Introduction 2 Othering and Belonging Through Assessment and Inclusion 2.1 When Are Students Included in and Excluded from Assessment? 2.1.1 Assessment for All but Selective Exclusion for Some 2.1.2 Alternative Provision and Pathways 2.1.3 Off-Rolling and Exclusions 2.2 When Does Assessment Offer the Possibility for Inclusion? 2.3 How Are Assessment and Inclusion Policies and Practices Related to Current and Future Exclusions? 2.3.1 Perceptions of Self-Worth on Getting Low Results 2.3.2 Student Diversity as an “Othering” Mechanism 3 Concluding Discussion References Streaming, Stigmatisation, and the Question of Inclusivity Chapter 9: Conclusions: Unpacking the Assemblages of Assessment and Inclusion 1 Introduction 2 Post-Analysis Reflections on the Methodological Approach 2.1 The Applicability of Our Research Questions and the Concept of Assemblage 3 Recontextualising Inclusive Education and Assessment in the Case Contexts 3.1 The Argentina Case Assemblages 3.2 The China Case Assemblages 3.3 The Denmark Case Assemblages 3.4 The England Case Assemblages 3.5 The Israel Case Assemblages 4 Concluding Discussion 4.1 Familiarities, Analogies, and Resemblances References Chapter 10: Assessment and Inclusive Education in the Twenty-First Century: Transversal Connections in an Interdisciplinary Field 1 Introduction 2 Assessment, Testing, and Accountability 3 Contextual Inclusion and the Barrier Discussion 4 Purposes of Education 5 Education Policy, Power and Schooling 6 Assessment and Inclusive Education in the Twenty-First Century References Data Table Index