Pedagogic Models, Teachers' Frames of Interpretation and Assessment Practices

Abstract

SUMMARY Formerly dominant and well-known views concerning pupils' assessment practices in schools, influenced by social reproduction theories, have today given way to studies that tend to analyse these practices in terms of the tensions that teachers experience between their various roles and responsibilities as teachers and examiners. This study, using the example of the politico-ideological debates concerning pupils' assessment that have taken place in Greece over the last 20 years or so, attempts to address the issue of tensions in teachers' views and practices by directing attention to the resources available to teachers in their everyday teaching and assessment practices. In particular, drawing on Bernstein's work, it argues that with regard to pupils' assessments, the interpretative frames that provide resources to teachers relate to the specialised educational field, in its internal and external relationships. It is argued that identifying the characteristic features of this field, and the way they relate to teachers and official agencies, might provide a framework for empirical investigations and a description of the nature and character of teachers' tensions.