Abstract:

<p>Portfolios as an assessment tool have been used in education consistently over the past decade. Their use and structure, as described in the literature, has been strongly debated. This article discusses the current perceptions of portfolios as an assessment strategy in an educational context. With many formats used in the development of portfolios and many perceptions as to their value and use, inquiry into the need for a consistent supportive framework is overdue. To this end narrative as a method of inquiry and a genre will be investigated. Congruence between the conceptual framework of narrative and both the process and the phenomenon of portfolios will be discussed in an endeavour to construct a meaningful configuration that could serve the development of purposeful portfolios.</p>

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1080/13674580000200139

Affiliations: 1: University of Western Sydney, Macarthur, Australia