How Authentic is Authentic?

A review of the literature reveals that authenticity has emerged as the ‘golden goose’ in Higher Education; the panacea underpinning student employability, and the principal education strategy to ensure that students are capable of replicating tasks and performance standards typically found in the world of work (Oliver, 2015; Villarroel et al, 2018). Yet, authenticity remains a complex and contested concept, long debated and reviewed in the literature (Schultz, 2021).  My proposition in this session is that there an emerging danger that authenticity is being applied too liberally in Higher Education, without a full understanding what it means in practice and the implications for learning design particularly around assessment for/of learning.  As Ghosh (2018) points out simply recreating or replicating workplace settings is not enough to achieve authentic assessment. Moreover, many academic staff do not feel equipped to embed these employability skills (Sarkar, 2020) leading to a tension between external demands and staff practices (Cotronei-Baird, 2020). 

This therefore raises a fundamental issue of how we ‘authenticate’ authenticity, and to what extent are we bringing together the ‘individual elements of learning, and thus, combining knowledge, skills and attitudes to situations that resemble professional life’ (Gulikers, 2004). As an early adopter of employer engagement and authentic learning design, I would like to reflect on my experiences of developing authentic practice and the pivotal role that employers play in this process.  To do this, I will draw on my experiences of developing tourism and events programmes, reflecting on my industry experience as a sustainable destination management and service excellence consultant.  I will demonstrate how these roles were critical in creating meaningful and reciprocal relationships with employers, that ultimately secured their pro-active involvement in learning design, teaching, and assessment practice, helping define essential criteria and standards of performance that were relevant to sector employers. I will conclude by showcasing examples of authentic assessment practice that emerged through this collaborative activity and outline a series of core principles that can be used to ensure authentic practice is indeed authentic. 

I would really like to hear your views on how we can enhance authenticity around employability.  Please leave comments on the Padlet.