Between student voice-based assessment and teacher-student relationships: teachers' responses to 'techniques of power' in schools. Issue 6 (7th September 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Finefter-Rosenbluh, Ilana
• Is Part Of: British journal of sociology of education. Volume 43:Issue 6(2022)
• Page Start: 842
• Page End: 859
• Publication Date: 2022-09-07
• Subjects: Assessment -- ethic of care -- student voice -- teacher-student relationships -- governmentality; Educational sociology -- Great Britain -- Periodicals; 306.43
• DOI: 10.1080/01425692.2022.2080043
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0142-5692

Abstract

Abstract: This paper draws upon Foucault's problematisation of governmentality analysis to explore teacher interviews from Australian secondary schools, where student voice was 'enacted' within a teacher assessment reform strategy. By bringing teacher voices into relation with theory, it illustrates how the current 'sociality of performativity' is situating student voice-based assessment initiatives as power apparatuses of teacher surveillance that shape teacher-student relationships. The analysis portrays teachers' responses to such 'techniques of power', employing forms of auditable commodification, physical proximity, and reflective practice as a means of managing student voice 'risk'. In so doing, the teachers relegated teacher-student relationships to the margins, struggling to profess an ethic of care; paradoxically disadvantaging students through voice initiatives intended to advance them. Demonstrating how affective fundamentals are eclipsed by performative-invested practices, the analysis highlights the discursive policy contestations of rapport and performance that should be taken into consideration in future implementations of student voice-based assessment initiatives.