Beyond empowerment: student self-assessment as a form of resistance

Abstract

Student self-assessment is commonly promoted as a formative assessment practice that boosts learning and self-regulation. On the other hand, it is suggested that self-assessment fosters students’ reflexivity and empowerment. Despite both arguments, student self-assessment plays a rather minor role in modern educational systems that value test results over critical reflection. amidst the neoliberal context of education, self-assessment might even discipline rather than ‘empower’: the high achieving, self-regulated learner reflects the values of individualisation, competition and marketisation. How could self-assessment be used to resist the prevalent structures of power? In this study, self-assessment, is reconceptualised as a form of resistance. This endeavour is guided by four frameworks for power and resistance: sovereign, epistemological, disciplinary, and biopower. The concept of transformative self-assessment is formulated in order to reframe self-assessment as a socio-political practice. This study considers the role of self-assessment not as a tool to foster performance, but as a disruptive practice that promises to reveal and resist the structures of power in assessment.