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CC BY-NC-ND V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Cutting the Gordian knot of the education ‘crisis’ with teacher testing. A blunt instrument that crushes marginalised preservice teachers
Journal of Education Policy
2024
Abstract
This paper offers a brief yet evocative glimpse into marginalised pre-service teachers’ (PST) experiences of teacher testing in Australia’s High-stakes Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial Teacher Education Students (LANTITE). Utilising Critical Disability Theory (CDT)in particular, Goodley’s (2016) concept of neoliberal-ableism, we problematise teacher testing as a gatekeeping tool for students undertaking teacher education. The article highlights how neoliberal education policies in Australia have disempowered and turned away talented and empathetic future teachers. By illuminating their embodied experiences of stress and anxiety, we interrogate neoliberal discourses of power and how teacher testing is used as a blunt instrument to solve complex problems and funnel public funding to private corporations. As part of a larger longitudinal research project, we offer four narrative portraits giving voice to vulnerable PSTs who have become unwitting victims of the high-stakes test juggernaut. This article focuses on five emergent themes from the research: (a) the embodied impact of stress and anxiety on test-takers, (b) withholding of information regarding testing processes and support, (c) the lack of differentiation available to PSTs (d) impacts of edu-businesses and the business of education on vulnerable participants and (e) a passion for differentiation.
Details
- Title
- Cutting the Gordian knot of the education ‘crisis’ with teacher testing. A blunt instrument that crushes marginalised preservice teachers
- Authors/Creators
- Dr Kirsten Lambert (PhD) (Author) - Murdoch University, School of EducationAlison Hilton EdD (Author) - Murdoch University, School of Education
- Publication Details
- Journal of Education Policy
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
- Identifiers
- 991005703867807891
- Copyright
- © 2024 The Author(s).
- Murdoch Affiliation
- School of Education
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article
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