The Rubricization of Teacherhood and Studenthood: Intertextuality, Identity, and the Standardization of Self

• 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

The purpose of this paper is to theoretically explore the relationship between the use of rubrics and the rubricization of identities. Employing Kristeva’s (1980) theory of intertextuality and building upon Maslow’s (1948) concept of "rubricizing," this paper considers the ways in which teachers and students produce their selves as “rubric ready.” The paper explores how the efforts to meet rubric expectations affect not just the methods of teaching and learning, but also the experience of being teachers and students. The contemporary standardized educational climate is, in many ways, a regime of rubric measurements that has serious implications of a “rubricized” sense-of-self. The utilization of rubrics as tools mobilizes the components and content of rubrics—operationalizes the expectations, details and standards of rubrics. Once operationalized, these components actively code and shape both the work being evaluated and the people involved in the evaluation process—the rubric “rubricizes.” The paper’s analysis of the process of identity rubricization offers a theoretical contribution to the educational research field’s examination of the implications of increasing demands to rubricize and affords teachers a rich lens through which to re-consider their use of rubrics.

Authors

• Nancy G. Patterson, Grand Valley State University

• Lisa M. Perhamus, Grand Valley State University