The Things We Hold Dear: The Sedimentation of Assessment in Material Culture

• In Event: Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: Critical Discourse on Curriculum and Culture

Abstract

In the introduction to her essay, The Secret Power of the Things we Hold Dear, Turkle (2007) describes how she learned to use objects as clues in her thinking about mysteries. A Similarly, we use informants’ narratives and objects (i.e., things they hold dear) as clues to uncover meanings of assessment. We clustered findings into categories of meaning: assessment as a tool; assessment preparation via tools; assessment as sediment in life histories. The purpose of this work is to intervene in commonsensical ways of understanding the phenomenon of assessment in order to add to the conversation on its use and abuse in schooling (Janesick, 2010). We are interested in meanings about assessment in informants’ narratives and associated objects.

Authors

• Vonzell Agosto, University of South Florida

• Jennifer R. Wolgemuth, University of South Florida

• Aimee Frier, University of South Florida

• Stephanie Green, University of South Florida - Tampa

• Mike Riley, University of South Florida

• Jeanine L. Romano, American University of Sharjah