ABSTRACT
Teachers are required to assess children’s work, often in relation to numerous and complex outcomes set by education departments. Tests are supposed to reveal how proficient children have become by demonstrating their skills and knowledge. The methods of assessment teachers use should be aligned to what is taught in a classroom and how it is taught. From the beginning of schooling until its end, time is broken up on a daily, weekly, and yearly basis in which children are expected to master knowledge and skills. They are ranked by ability and move on to more complex tasks. Throughout their school career the examination is present. Examination is the key term used in this chapter. It is not used as a synonym for taking tests or end-of-year examinations but as one of the techniques of disciplinary power. Its regulatory nature is revealed when Foucault describes it as a ‘normalizing gaze’ (1977: 184) that judges, classifies, and punishes. Examination allows for a constant exchange of knowledge: disciplinary knowledge transmitted from teacher to students, as well as a teacher’s knowledge of students. What counts as knowledge is not neutral, and this impacts on assessment practices. Like models of literacy, assessment is also influenced and shaped by values, beliefs, and language and affects how subjects are constructed (Johnston & Rogers, 2001). For example, the positive descriptor ‘fluent reader’ may hold different meanings in different contexts. It may describe a child who quickly recognizes sight words on flashcards, where a skills model of reading predominates, or a child who reads aloud books of their own choosing, where wide reading is valued. In this chapter the operation of examination provides additional insight into how the literate subject is constructed. Foucault breaks examination down into three key elements: visibility, entrance into the field of documentation, and becoming a case. These three elements structure the chapter. Examples of the ways in which children are made visible, documented, and recorded illustrate how these elements operate at Acacia and Southside in constructing a particular version of the schooled and literate subject.
