https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13562517.2024.2380997#d1e192" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13562517.2024.2380997#d1e192

The purpose of this paper is to critique traditional views of authentic assessment within higher education. Authentic assessment has often been perceived as the measurement of how well students perform tasks that are reflective of “real life.” In addition, most authentic assessments have focused largely on improving employability and task/concept design. The author contends that these views are conceptually limiting, as they neglect to consider the deeper ontological questions of who students are becoming through assessment. The article draws upon the work of several theorists such as Jan McArthur, Karen Barad, and Rosi Braidotti in order to suggest reframing authentic assessment through relational pedagogy. Relational pedagogies situate assessment as a relational process that occurs through affective, embodied, and co-constituted relationships between students (as well as between students and their teachers) within their material worlds. Important concepts such as mattering, intra-action, and affirmative ethics are discussed in order to build awareness of the importance of care, dialogic process, trust, and power in designing assessments. An example of a dialogic oral assessment within a postgraduate teaching program illustrates how the assessment process can create connection, foster reflection, and enable mutual learning. Ultimately, while this article affirms the value of authentic assessment, it suggests that the concept can only have continued value when viewed through the lens of relational and ethical practice, as well as the rights of students as agents in a rapidly changing educational environment.

Authentic assessment as relational pedagogy