The Technical Power of Rubrics: Prioritizing Teaching and Learning Orientations in the Evaluation of Teachers

• In Event: 35.082 - Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: 35.082-9 - A Rubric Nation: Critical Inquiries Into the Impact of Rubrics on Education

Abstract

This paper spotlights a piloted teacher task rubric used at the end of a six-week institute to explore how orientations can be evidenced in a rubric and consider the type of teacher the program may likely produce. Specifically, the paper aims to address the following objectives: (a) spotlight the piloted teacher task rubric to explore how teaching and learning orientations can be evidenced in a rubric; (b) determine the type of teacher the program aims to produce based on the teaching and learning orientation evidence; and (c) consider implications for the use of teacher task rubrics in teacher education programs.

The paper begins with a brief overview of how rubrics are currently being used as a technique of power in the teacher preparation, and then briefly examines the types of conceptual orientations that commonly anchor the teaching and learning vision of teacher education programs. Foucault’s (1977) notion of disciplinary power grounds the claim that rubrics are currently positioned in teacher preparation as a technique of power. Alongside Foucault, Feiman-Nemser’s (2012) typologies of teacher preparation program orientations are also exercised as a conceptual tool to help make sense of how a teacher education program’s views of teaching and learning are evidenced in the content and practices described in a rubric. The intersection between rubrics as a technique of power (Foucault, 1977) and the conceptual orientations of teaching and learning (Feiman-Nemser, 2012) is examined to speculate the type of teacher likely produced.

Four strands of a piloted rubric are analyzed through a document orientation analysis of the task rubric. To determine the candidates’ learning at the end of the institute, the task rubric was employed to examine four strands of teacher work. Document orientation analysis was conducted on each strand of the rubric to address the question: How does the rubric, as a technique of power, espouse particular conceptual orientations of teaching and learning? Two findings emerged from the close analysis: (a) the rubric espouses a strong valuing of practical and personal orientations at the expense of others; and (b) the rubric describes ambiguous knowledge and skill requirements for the teacher learners.

The findings have several important scholarly considerations for the use of evaluative rubrics in teacher education programs. First, if a certain type of teacher is likely produced based on the prioritization of particular orientations in rubric, the rubric may be differentiating for particular types of teacher learners. Second, the preparation sequence can play a critical role in determining the type of teaching and learning orientations that are spotlighted in the rubric. Another important consideration is what knowledge and skills the teacher candidates’ future students will likely not receive when programs prioritize particular orientations at the expense of others. Finally, the orientation analysis of the piloted rubric suggests scholars and researchers who employ rubrics in a high stakes fashion should critically consider questions related to authority, motive, equity, and moral concerns in the creation and application of teacher evaluation rubrics in teacher education programs.

Author

• Conra D. Gist, University of Arkansas