Teacher Identity in Assessment Policy and Practice within the General Education and Training Band.

Abstract

The democratic South Africa’s dual challenge in overcoming its own divisive history as well

as addressing global economic imperatives, has led to transformations in education. Policy

production thus takes place in an atmosphere infused by economic, political, social and

cultural effects of globalization. Embedded within the wave of curriculum reform, are new

forms of learner assessment which have shifted from being largely norm-based and

summative to one which is formative, standards- based and continuous. The new discourse on

assessment requires a ‘paradigm shift’ for most teachers implementing the new assessment

policy. Although education policy reforms in schools challenge teachers’ existing practices

and increases teachers’ work load, they seldom give due attention to teachers’ identities. My

research raises questions about the political rationalities that have informed policies on a new

conception of the ideal teacher as assessor and how these political rationalities have

intersected with the individual lives and identities of teachers. This study investigates at a

micro-level, the workings of how teachers govern themselves in their work and in general as

human beings. The constitution of teacher identity through discourses and discursive

practices of the assessment reform is central to the argument of this thesis which is guided by

the following critical question:

Within the historical context of the current wave of curriculum reform in South Africa, how is

teacher identity constituted in the discourses and practices of assessment reform?

Data was obtained from ten teacher participants through interviews, classroom observations

and document evidence. Using the biographical / life history approach and teachers’

narratives of self, I explore patterns by which experiential and emotional contexts, feelings,

images and memories are organized to form the teachers’ identity. My analytical strategy

draws from the work of Foucault (1954-1984), Giddens (1991), Wenger (1998), Bourdieu

(1977), Frankl (1984), Laclau and Mouffe (1985), Maslow (1943) as well as other scholars.