Shifting perceptions of socially just writing assessment: Labor-based contract grading and multilingual writing instruction

Abstract

Labor-based contract grading has been identified as a more equitable and socially just method of assessing student writing. However, scholarship on labor-based contract grading has yet to investigate the use of this assessment method in sheltered multilingual contexts, nor has it considered multilingual writing instructors’ perceptions of this assessment practice. The present study presents cases of two instructors to learn more about how labor-based grading contracts are being used in sheltered multilingual first-year writing (FYW) courses, as well as how these instructors perceive labor-based contract grading. Data analysis reveals that both writing instructors use labor-based contract grading to create opportunity structures for their multilingual students; however, their experiences using labor-based grading contracts varied depending on the extent to which they designed their contracts to align with their pedagogical values. Further, the instructors both acknowledge the complexity of social justice in sheltered multilingual contexts but have different perspectives on how to best practice socially just writing assessment in their sheltered multilingual FYW courses.