Abstract

Evidence around the positive effects perceived by teachers, students and the school community in relation to Assessment for Learning (AfL) is as abundant as the evidence related to the obstacles they find when they try to enact it in their daily school practice. This paper argues that an important dimension of these difficulties is related to the power relations that characterise school interactions, and to the discourses on assessment that circulate among school actors. This approach -seldom found in AfL literature- understands the school as a dynamic space where struggle and resistance take place permanently, either facilitating or hindering change. The paper draws on the findings of a research project directed by the author and funded by the University of Chile, which addresses the power networks and the discursive struggles that occur when a process of change of assessment culture is promoted in the context of selective public schools in Santiago. This exploratory and descriptive qualitative study draws on evidence generated in the context of a professional development programme carried out by the University of Chile with two highly selective public schools in Santiago, where accountability and competition-centred approaches to assessment predominate, in terms of a self-legitimating mechanism that guarantees excellence and success. Through the analysis of materials generated in the programme as well as through interviews, document analysis and focus groups with different members of the school community, the study aims at mapping the power relations inside each school and the discourses on assessment that circulate among their actors, in order to detect what are the facilitating aspects that might favour change. This study contributes to an alternative understanding of reform and policy, in which a strategic approach to change from within and from the bottom replaces the predominant top-down implementation-centred approaches promoted by neo-liberal evidence-based policy agendas.