35.082-9 - A Rubric Nation: Critical Inquiries Into the Impact of Rubrics on Education

• In Event: 35.082 - Roundtable Session 14

Session Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract

The objective of this session is to provide a critical forum for discussing a range of consequences of using rubrics in education. Well-designed rubrics improve teaching and learning in some contexts overall. However, they can also function as mechanisms of control that limit both teachers’ and students’ capacities to learn and develop their own identities. Rubrics are not merely simple constructs composed of checklists based on predetermined criteria. Rather, rubrics also have a range of unintended consequences that are eclipsed in the larger popular discourse around them. Presenting rubrics as harmless tools of evaluation and assessment processes obscures deeper conversations regarding rubrics as tools of power that can also marginalize and disempower teachers and students.

Sub Unit

• Division B - Curriculum Studies / Division B - Section 1: Critical and Post-Foundationalist Perspectives and Practices

Chairs

• Michelle Tenam-Zemach, Nova Southeastern University

• Joseph E. Flynn, Northern Illinois University

Papers

• The Sine Qua Non of Education: Rubrics and Their Relationship to Standards and Accountability? - Michelle Tenam-Zemach, Nova Southeastern University; Joseph E. Flynn, Northern Illinois University; Leslie D. Burns, University of Kentucky

• The Technical Power of Rubrics: Prioritizing Teaching and Learning Orientations in the Evaluation of Teachers - Conra D. Gist, University of Arkansas

• The Rubricization of Teacherhood and Studenthood: Intertextuality, Identity, and the Standardization of Self - Nancy G. Patterson, Grand Valley State University; Lisa M. Perhamus, Grand Valley State University

• The Sanctity of Software - Tom Liam Lynch, Pace University