ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 selectively reviews the contributions of assessment-centred communities to evolving conceptions of validity, a principal focus of concern for such communities (e.g., measurement, psychology, psychometrics). It highlights the pivotal contributions to our current understanding of validity as a social practice and rhetorical art (Messick, 1988). These evolving conceptions of validity emerged in periods marked by considerable methodological turbulence, contested theoretical perspectives, and research practices. Although this chapter will be most useful for our intended audience of readers aligned with language-centred communities (e.g., language teaching, discourse, writing studies), who may be less familiar with this rich history, readers who are aligned with assessment-centred communities will find the contents familiar but alternatively rendered through concerns for the problems of context in the development and use of assessment.
