Australian Indigenous students: addressing equity issues in assessment

Author: Klenowski, Val

Source: Teaching Education, Volume 20, Number 1, March 2009 , pp. 77-93(17)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

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Abstract:

This article provides the background and context to the important issue of assessment and equity in relation to Indigenous students in Australia. Questions about the validity and fairness of assessment are raised and ways forward are suggested by attending to assessment questions in relation to equity and culture-fair assessment. Patterns of under-achievement by Indigenous students are reflected in national benchmark data and international testing programmes like the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study and the Program for International Student Assessment. The argument developed views equity, in relation to assessment, as more of a sociocultural issue than a technical matter. It highlights how teachers need to distinguish the “funds of knowledge” that Indigenous students draw on and how teachers need to adopt culturally responsive pedagogy to open up the curriculum and assessment practice to allow for different ways of knowing and being.

Keywords: equity; assessment; sociocultural perspective; Indigenous education

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10476210802681741

Affiliations: 1: Faculty of Education, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

Publication date: 2009-03-01

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