Reconsidering the role of authenticity in assessment in higher education
Editors of special issue: Rola Ajjawi1, Margaret Bearman1, Mollie Dollinger1, Joanna Tai1, David Boud1 and Aneta Hayes2.
1Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning (CRADLE), Deakin University, Australia
2Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Keele University, UK
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For over 30 years, the notion of authentic assessment has been subject to critique, research and scholarly practice. Though there have been multiple definitions and operationalisations of authentic assessment, the term lacks conceptual clarity (Kreber et al. 2007) and its use is described as disarticulated and ahistorical (McArthur 2023). Current practice tends to fixate on realism and on mimicking work as its key tenets. This often translates to superficial and unidimensional manifestations of authentic assessment that ignore students’ goals for their own learning and their aspirations for why they are enrolled, and focuses on assessors’ perspectives of what might be perceived as authentic.
Ultimately and importantly, the nature of authenticity is in the eye of the beholder (Ajjawi et al. 2020). Though this ambiguity makes it rhetorically and politically useful, is it still worthwhile as an educational tool? While universities seek to prepare their graduates for the future, pressures to focus on graduate employability and realism in the name of authenticity can be restrictive rather than hopeful, by assessing a limiting band of abilities relating to the here and now of work.
Frameworks of authentic assessment typically focus on designing assessment that develops students’ evaluative judgements, promotes cognitive challenge, and replicates in the task or context some aspect of work practices (Villarroel et al. 2020). Others have argued for purposeful inclusion of industry in designing and implementing the assessment in recognition that authentic assessment serves to bridge the university and the workplace (Henderson and Trede 2017). These frameworks tend to focus on teacherly design to assess students’ knowledge and skills.
However, this too is limiting. In 2014, Vu and Dall’Alba (2014) called for broader perspective on authentic assessment than ‘real-life’ through considering the ontological dimension of who students are becoming, such that assessment encompasses integrating knowing, acting and being within a broad range of practices. Students must take responsibility for who they are becoming through engaging critically (and purposefully) instead of merely replicating practices without thinking. More recently, McArthur (2023) extended this argument to propose that authentic assessment should build student relationships with society, to consider the value of the task (why it matters), and not to settle for replication but to seek to transform society. This innovative social justice emphasis highlights the need to more broadly interpret authenticity.
Focus of special issue
In this special issue of Teaching in Higher Education we seek to shift away from authenticity being a destination, or a defining feature of the task, but rather something that is multifaceted and nuanced, acknowledging that a single consensus definition will not serve. Hence, we speak to authenticity in assessment rather than authentic assessment.
We take assessment in its broadest sense, from the making of judgements about how students’ work meets appropriate standards, to supporting learning through feedback and assessment for learning as well as sustainable assessment. Conceptual and empirical submissions about any aspect of authenticity in assessment are welcomed including design, validity, feedback, quality, standards, assessment regimes or cultures, surrounding material and social conditions or entanglements, and experiences of assessment.
The key question this special issue of Teaching in Higher Education seeks to address is: ‘How is authenticity in assessment educationally relevant?’ In this open call, we seek articles that trouble superficial and instrumental practices of authentic assessment, re-orienting it towards the future in a way that opens possibilities for all stakeholders. We welcome new theoretical contributions and conceptualisations of authenticity in assessment, as well as empirical papers.
Themes
Possible themes that papers might explore include:
- Troubling authenticity in higher education with new theoretical directions
- The role of assessment in shaping future graduates, work, and society
- Reorienting authenticity towards complexity, uncertainty and emergence
- Tackling fragmentation, superficiality and instrumentalism in assessment
We encourage submissions from scholars from underrepresented groups. We also encourage Points of Departure (POD) papers, which intend to stimulate debate through controversial ideas and are more experimental in form. POD papers might argue, for example, that authentic assessment has run its course or challenge the purposes and ethos of assessment. Guidance for POD papers can be found here.
Our aspiration for this special issue is to critically engage with the field around notions of authenticity in assessment and to inspire new possibilities for curriculum. Inevitably, authenticity will always be understood as multiple, but our hope is that we reorient towards richer and more critical conceptualisations of it in assessment practices.
Timeline
Call for papers opens: 31st July 2023
Submission of 1,000-1,500 word extended abstracts closes: 4th September 2023
Decision on abstracts communicated: October 2023
If a submission shows potential but would benefit from further development, you may be asked to resubmit a 2,000 word abstract in November following engagement with feedback comments from the editors. Some abstracts may be accepted without this additional step.
Submission of papers: March 2024
Publication: October 2024
Submit your abstract here.
For advice on submitting a paper, please also see: https://teachinginhighereducation.wordpress.com/seven-questions-for-potential-authors-how-to-get-published-in-teaching-in-higher-education
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