As we move towards assessment weeks at our universities, it might be a good time to remind ourselves of the ethics of assessments. If you haven’t taken time out to reflect on this as an academic yet, now might be a good time. The self-reflection needed to be both ethical and competent as an academic and as a leader in higher education (HE) requires ongoing reflection that leads us back to the roots of what we do and how we can do it in the best possible way.
Putting students first
The ‘best possible way’, will include a reflection on whether the chosen ‘way’ is ethical for all involved. Setting assessments requires an ethical approach to ensure fairness for all involved, especially for our students. We need to be constantly asking ourselves whether what we are doing is centred around our need to impress the external examiner, or other people, concerning what we know, or whether we have denounced any ego-centric view of what we know in favour of a deep reflection on the ethics of what we are doing for our students.
Geraldine O’Neill’s 2017 work, It’s not fair! Students and staff views on the equity of the procedures and outcomes of students’ choice of assessment methods reminds us in no uncertain terms that:
“[a]ssessment…has the potential to maximise or greatly hinder students’ chances of success. In developed countries with mass higher education systems, designing fair assessment can be challenging given that staff differ in their views and experiences of assessments and students are an increasingly heterogenous group”. (p.221)
Removing hidden cues
In short, assessments can be de facto unethical and thereby unfair if they are completely unfamiliar to students, unclear, mysterious, or contain ‘hidden’ cues that only students with the social capital around them can decode.
Having someone at home or in one’s immediate circle of personal relationships can be advantageous to some and a further disadvantage to others who are the first in their family to go to university, perhaps have a disability or have come from a different system of assessment in another country. Therefore, those with responsibility for assessment need, in every instance, to be engaged in an ethically informed dialogue about how to design, explain and mark student assessment tasks.
Education as a human right
As I said in my book The Lecturer’s Survival Guide: An Introduction to Successful Teaching in Higher Education, “[w]e must remember that for some of our students the lecturer is the most networked and educated person that they know personally so they rely on this person engaging effectively with sector leading pedagogical information concerning what works with students to help them to succeed”. Some issues are societal in nature and not for the lecturer to resolve. But an understanding and consciousness around how societal injustices can be perpetuated in university behaviours and patterns is needed for everyone to understand that our job is to seek ways of eradicating these in student learning and assessment.
Assessment literacy is a right for all students. Since education is a fundamental human right, all other aspects that surround a student’s ability to access educational skills and be successful in HE (or at any level of education) are part and parcel of the language of ‘rights’.
Rights imply and require responsibilities
For those unfamiliar with the language of ethics and/or how the philosophical community sees ‘rights’, it is important to remember that each time we speak of ‘rights’, we also need to speak of ‘responsibilities’.
We cannot say we have the right to respect this or that without understanding that we have a responsibility – each and every one of us – to ensure that we ensure those rights are implemented. So, we need to think of ‘rights and responsibilities’ together. The new pedagogical ‘R & R’ for academics (if that helps us to remember) is ‘rights and responsibilities’ for ethical assessments in HE.
Universities as a community
We could also apply this to all aspects of the core business strategy of universities, especially given the fact that some universities have a charitable status and are set up to be of service to the world. This invites everyone who works at the university to engage in a constant conversation about how ‘rights and responsibilities’ can be implemented. Approaching our work at our universities as a sector and as a unified university community, is more than just ‘businesses for the sake of business’. It is deeply human and deeply mission-driven in every sense of the word.
In short, if you haven’t thought of student assessment as a ‘values-driven’ activity before now, this piece might present you with an invitation to step back, be still and reflect. Try to remember that assessment is not about you; it’s about the students.
We are ‘in service’ of the student in every instance. Even the act of giving feedback sits in this moral reflection on assessment. As Marcia Mentkowski reminds us in the foreword to Learning that lasts: Integrating learning, development, and performance in college and beyond, 2013:
“[f]eedback is a moral act and that is why it is an essential part of humane teaching and assessment. […] the act of assessment is derived from the Latin word assidere, meaning to ‘sit down beside’. Thus, assessing means, literally and figuratively, to sit with learners and provide our best efforts at feedback”.
The educator’s role in promoting equity
A further point for a positive moral reflection on the ethics of assessment is the need to remember that students should be encouraged to write against the learning outcomes, and not focus on what we as academics might like to see or have written about in our own research areas. The academic’s role is to ensure that a level playing field is established in the assessment process and that the ‘rules of the game’ and ‘tacit knowledge’ are fully understood by everyone. “In this way, our classrooms can really become places where the social justice issues that exist in society (that might be impacting on student progression and assessment literacy) can be minimised and replaced by an environment where there is a shared understanding of tasks and equal opportunity to succeed”. (Mealey ibid., p.52).
We need to approach student assessment with a values-driven perspective because, as the Human Rights Careers website reminds us, “When the education system isn’t committed to providing equal opportunities and privileges, it negatively impacts a society both culturally and economically”. This also applies to what we do within all aspects of the delivery of education – so, by default, it includes assessment.
When considered through the lens of ‘sitting beside’ (assidere) our students and ensuring that human rights are upheld and respected, assessment becomes an act that demands a deeply human and moral response from all of us. It invites us into a space where we are called to be mature moral agents with responsibility for ensuring that a fundamental right is protected.
So, in this assessment period, the invitation is clear: respect rights and link them with responsibilities, Good luck, everyone!
