A Stridently Situative Approach to Inclusive Engagement and Assessment

• In Event: Fostering Engagement for All: Advancing Socioculturally Inclusive Theory, Research, and Practice in Student Engagement

Abstract

This presentation introduces Culturally Sustaining Educational Assessment (CSEA), a framework developed through design-based research in a fully online graduate course on educational assessment. CSEA builds on productive disciplinary engagement (PDE, Engle & Conant, 2002), expansive framing (Engle et al., 2012), and participatory learning and assessment (PLA, Hickey et al., 2020; Hickey & Harris, 2021) by embedding inclusive pedagogical principles into routine assessment design. Grounded in situative theories of knowing, learning, and motivation, it positions students’ cultural knowledge, histories, and identities as assets for disciplinary engagement—particularly in online spaces where participation is often limited. Engagement is conceptualized not as an internal trait but as emerging from meaningful participation in valued practices (Greeno, 1998; Hickey, 2003). Rather than emphasizing individual choice, this perspective examines how assessment structures afford or constrain students’ roles in disciplinary discourse, making educational design central to fostering sustained, socially constructed engagement. Through iterative design-based research (Cobb et al., 2003), the course embedded weekly assignments focused on disciplinary uncertainties—optional prompts tied to debates on race, power, and culture in assessment (Agarwal & Sengupta-Irving, 2019). While students were not required to disclose personal identities, they were invited to explore diverse perspectives. These uncertainties positioned students as contributors to ongoing disciplinary conversations and created space for minoritized forms of knowledge. The course also incorporated routines for reflection, self-assessment, and threaded discussion. Instructor feedback emphasized conceptual insight, recognition, and amplification of diverse voices, while peer interactions fostered shared understanding. These integrated features supported evolving participation in a collaborative academic environment. Evidence from student artifacts, discussions, assessments, and evaluations revealed deep engagement with both political and non-political uncertainties. The design enabled meaningful participation without requiring identity performance. Students from underrepresented communities often drew on lived experience, while others explored less personal topics. Instructor and peer interactions were central to sustaining broad engagement. CSEA illustrates how assessment—often perceived as a barrier to equity—can become a lever for inclusive participation. It offers a model for transforming routine assessment into participatory structures that cultivate motivation through relational, socially grounded practices.

The presentation will highlight the following provocative/novel insights:
● Motivation Emerges from Learning Environments—Not Learners. This work challenges the view of engagement as a personal trait. From a situative perspective, students engage when positioned as legitimate participants in meaningful disciplinary activity. CSEA shows how assessment practices can invite—or exclude—such participation, making them central to inclusive design.
● Optionality Repositions Participation—Beyond Preference. Offering both politically charged and neutral uncertainties allows students to choose their path into disciplinary work. This flexibility supports both culturally driven and technically motivated learners, redefining equity as responsiveness to diverse motivational pathways.
● Assessment Structures Engagement—Not Just Measures It. Rather than merely evaluating prior engagement, CSEA uses assessment to generate it. Through reflections, feedback, and embedded uncertainties, assessment becomes a participatory structure—one that includes minoritized students in both learning and shaping disciplinary knowledge.

Authors

• Daniel T. Hickey, Indiana University

• Charmian Lam, University of Chicago

• Qianxu Morgan Luo, Indiana University