Tensions between policy aspirations and enactment: assessment and inclusion for refugee background students

ABSTRACT

This article considers the ways in which two senior secondary assessment policies that aim to be inclusive are enacted for students from refugee backgrounds. The final years of secondary school in Australia are shaped by high-stakes assessment requirements. Yet there have been policy moves in South Australia to be more inclusive of students by providing more flexibility for them to demonstrate their learning in diverse ways. We undertook a critical policy analysis to investigate the ways in which South Australian senior secondary certificate policies are enacted in two case study secondary schools. Our analysis of the data indicates that school staff navigate between competing demands of conflicting policy directives. These conflicting directives result in tensions for staff as they enact policies . In high-stakes assessment environments where staff and students strive towards academic achievements, inclusive policies can be limited by other policies that impose uniformity and fairness. The limitations to inclusion noted in this study may be indicative of broader exclusions created by the enactment of policies in high-stakes assessment contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Policy enactment
• assessment policy
• educational inclusion
• refugee students

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the two participating schools, the staff, and students for their involvement in the research. We would also like to thank Catholic Education South Australia and the University of South Australia for their joint funding of this research project. We would like to acknowledge the financial support provided by the Research in Educational and Social Inclusion Group, University of South Australia, and the editing support of Kate Leeson. We are thankful to the three anonymous reviewers whose suggestions have made this a stronger paper. We acknowledge that this research was undertaken on the lands of the Kaurna people, the traditional custodians of the Adelaide region, who have a continuing spiritual connection to the land and that their cultural and heritage beliefs are still as important to the living Kaurna people today.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Melanie Baak

Melanie Baak is a Research Fellow in the School of Education at the University of South Australia and co-convenor of the Migration and Refugee Research Network (MARRNet). Her research focuses on areas of equity and inclusion, particularly in schools, with a focus on culturally and linguistically diverse students, refugee education and resettlement. In recent research projects she has collaborated with refugee background communities to explore areas including belonging, education and employment.

Emily Miller

Emily Miller is a researcher and PhD candidate investigating various factors relating to education with Australian students from refugee backgrounds. Her work across multiple research projects has focused variously on mental health and wellbeing, family connections with school, senior school curriculum and pedagogy, and the provision and access of services that support settlement and ongoing life in Australia for young people with refugee backgrounds. This ongoing research contributes to a growing evidence base for effective school practice, particularly for educators working with students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

Anna Sullivan

Anna Sullivan is an Associate Professor of Education and Director of the Research in Educational and Social Inclusion Group at the University of South Australia. Her research focuses on the ways in which policy and practice includes and/or excludes those who are most vulnerable in education.

Kathleen Heugh

Kathleen Heugh is an Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of South Australia. She specialises in policy, planning and implementation of literacy and multilingual approaches to education internationally. She has advised 35 governments on language policy and education in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe; and works closely with several UN and international think-tank agencies that contribute to education policy for displaced, migrant and minority communities particularly in the Asia-Pacific. Together with Christopher Stroud, she initiated the Southern Multilingualisms and Diversities Consortium with a network of researchers across Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australasia and Europe.