Ungrading Political Science: An Analysis of Equity Concerns

• In Event: Reimagining Political Science Education: Innovations in Curriculum and Pedagogy

Abstract

Ungrading involves increased student agency in the determination of grades. Benefits of ungrading practices include greater attention to quality of work, movement away from compliance based teaching, and, for Political Science specifically, practice with dynamics of power, agency, and responsibility in collective contexts. Ungrading also exists in the spirit of dismantling structures created to marginalize, exclude, and oppress individuals on the basis of characteristics unrelated to the essential aspects of work toward a specific goal. As with all efforts to exercise equity, concerns arise regarding whether well intentioned practices serve to create or recreate discrimination. Specifically, questions around divergent self assessments connect to group-based characteristics such as the stereotype threats producing underestimation of performance on the part of women, people of color, and individuals with disabilities. This paper analyses responses to Ungrading Practices in three Political Science courses to explore how and if ungrading reinforces inequities.

Author

• Dana Lee Baker, California State University Channel Islands