Beyond empowerment: student self-assessment as a form of resistance

Abstract

Student self-assessment is commonly promoted as a formative assessment practice that boosts learning and self-regulation. On the other hand, it is suggested that self-assessment fosters students’ reflexivity and empowerment. Despite both arguments, student self-assessment plays a rather minor role in modern educational systems that value test results over critical reflection. amidst the neoliberal context of education, self-assessment might even discipline rather than ‘empower’: the high achieving, self-regulated learner reflects the values of individualisation, competition and marketisation. How could self-assessment be used to resist the prevalent structures of power? In this study, self-assessment, is reconceptualised as a form of resistance. This endeavour is guided by four frameworks for power and resistance: sovereign, epistemological, disciplinary, and biopower. The concept of transformative self-assessment is formulated in order to reframe self-assessment as a socio-political practice. This study considers the role of self-assessment not as a tool to foster performance, but as a disruptive practice that promises to reveal and resist the structures of power in assessment.

Keywords:

• Self-assessment
• power
• resistance
• assessment
• Foucault

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Acknowledgements

I warmly express my gratitude to Anette Bagger and Juulia Lahdenperä for their insightful comments on the manuscript.

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.