Locating the Inclusive Professional: A Comparative Analysis of the Construction of Teachers in Assessment Policies of Argentina, China, Denmark, and Israel

• In Event: Pedagogy, Assessment, Strikes, and Leadership in Education

Abstract

Teachers today work within the context of two competing global educational agendas: a testing agenda, and an inclusion agenda. In this paper, we compare assessment policies in four distinct national contexts: Argentina, China, Denmark, and Israel. Through analysis of key assessment policy texts, we aim to understand how teachers, their practice and professionalism are constructed discursively by national policymakers. Adopting an interpretive standpoint, which treats policy documents as social constructs, we attempt to explore the underlying ideological assumptions about the purposes of assessment, and teachers’ location within these two areas of professional practice. Although tentative, our findings reveal that, while certain inclusive practices are encouraged, teachers are largely absent as active agents within the assessment sphere.

Authors

• Alison Milner, Aalborg University

• Youjin Ruan, Aalborg University

• Ezequiel Gomez Caride, Universidad de San Andrés

• Tali Aderet-German, Aalborg University