Diverse meanings ascribed to equity in early mathematics assessment

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article presents a discourse analysis of early mathematics teachers’ talk about mandatory national assessment material with a particular focus on communication about equity. With this assessment material, teachers do not decide what and how to assess; however, they are the ones who carry out the work before, during, and after assessment. Thus, teachers’ views of equity in assessment may influence how assessment is prepared, conducted, and followed up in teaching. In this study, discourse analysis is used as both a theory and an analytical tool. The study included four focus groups with 12 teachers from eight schools. In their communication, teachers ascribe different meanings to equity. In the results, four discourses with diverse meanings ascribed to equity are construed by the researcher: doing the same discourse, different needs discourse, unclear conditions discourse, and different resources discourse. The meaning of equity, as well as its goal and intention, differs in these discourses, which may have implications for educational practice in terms of tensions between different goals and intentions and thus implications for the degree to which assessment may contribute to equity in early mathematics education.