One of the DQ questions asked us "to use our power and privilege to shape new narratives around student assessment," where Hong and Moloney (2020) state “it is up to us to lead the rebuilding of assessment that supports all learners whose voices and stories we amplify” (p. 12). 

This course has taught me to reflect deeply upon power dynamics in my assessment practices. I found myself asking, in what ways do I as a teacher continue to perpetuate forms of power in my assessments? As is characteristic of reflexive and reflective work, there are times when I looked deep within, and found practices that I knew reinforced the status quo in assessment; this made me uncomfortable and I found myself resisting looking with a critical lens. However, I am learning to recognize and DISRUPT power.

In traditional classrooms, teachers are viewed as the ultimate authority in which students are expected to be compliant and not question the status quo. Yet, that power "extends beyond the individual and classroom to institutional power" and is the "lens through which a student's work product is evaluated, feedback is rendered, and grades are determined" (Martin-Thomsen et al, 2021, p. 285). The implications of this power can be far reaching, greatly impacting a student's life.  This power has been "used as a tool to control, exclude, and limit actors' mobility-socially, financially, and educationally" (Martin-Thomsen et al, 2021, p. 285). My biases-conscious or unconscious- come into play here.

A student's competency in the dominant language  “is a gateway to power in learning” and can be a “barrier to student understanding and advancement” therefore, if students do not have command of English, they are at a massive disadvantage (Martin– Thomsen et al, 2023, p. 285, 286). The subject I teach-English- perpetuates power as the study of a dominant language and its various forms of written expression, which follow conventions of the English language. Writing essays and narratives are forms of maintaining power as cultural hegemony, being forms of western style education and communication. The way stories are told, even what is considered as good writing technique is a form of power. There is a need to decolonize privileged writing traditions and make room for other ways of knowing. Even the criteria for the rubrics perpetuates inequities, thus I have been reinforcing dominant paradigms in my assessment practices by asserting my own power and biased lens on the student (Martin-Thomsen et al, 2023). 

The start to changing the narrative on assessment to become equitable is being aware of my power, privilege, and biases, then identifying how the impact on my assessment practices, so I can effectively DISRUPT inequities. 

One key way to dismantle the role of teacher as the authority is building relationships with students and treating them with respect and dignity. The readings in this course have stressed that it is imperative to understand the students in my classroom, which includes their learning needs, their strengths, where capacity needs to be built, and how to harness their gifts. Equally important is for teachers to know the student- who they are, their interests, passions, and importantly, their cultural background. Building relationships and creating community in the classroom is instrumental to student success. 

Student choice is important to mitigate the teacher-student power dynamic as it helps motivate students and provide them with a sense of empowerment and autonomy (Artze-Vega & Delagado, 2019, p. 26). Implementing student choice in assessment is an area that I am fairly competent in. When I became Coordinating Teacher (CT) seven years ago, one of my initiatives was to build in better formative assessment practices into the English program. The following aspects are some ways I have embedded student choice into the English program:

• Student choice in how they demonstrate their learning: At each English level, students can choose various formats for how they show their learning in certain genres. For example, for the novel unit, students choose their format, including visual, oral, written, or artistic. 

• Formative assessment: Written pieces are broken down into steps. Students can seek feedback on any assignment they are working on, at any stage of the process. Having the students for all three years where they complete one program with three courses, allows me to purposely scaffold learning of over a three year period. 

• Meta-cognition skills: Students document their own learning throughout the course in a portfolio. They set individualized goals for growth, create a plan, and reflect on their overall learning. They must meet with the teacher at specified points in the course to evaluate their learning. 

• Reassessment Opportunities: Students can reassess any assignment.