Examinations and the Construction of Professional Identity: a case study of England 1800–1950

Author: Sutherland G.

Source: Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice, Volume 8, Number 1, 1 March 2001 , pp. 51-64(14)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

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Abstract:

This paper examines the increasing use made of formal written examinations by occupational groups aspiring to professional status in nineteenth and early twentieth century England. At first such groups devised their own examinations; subsequently they also came to use the examinations of an expanding education system. In deploying the instrument of the examination professions were also invoking the challenge to patronage and the appeal to merit which it symbolised. Yet such use did not cut professionals loose from the class structure and status hierarchy of the society; rather, it anchored them firmly in a powerful position within it, a paradox only beginning to be explored and understood in the second half of the century.

Language: English

Document Type: Research article

Publication date: 2001-03-01

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