The rubriquization of evaluation and the fabrication of teachers as “agents of change” in an inclusive secondary school in the City of Buenos Aires, Argentina

Abstract

In Argentina, from 1970s onwards, a wide array of policy documents and initiatives (such as the National Law of Education passed in 2006) aim to radically alter key aspects of secondary school teaching, learning, and assessing. This piece contributes to the field of sociological studies of school assessments and inclusion examining the effects of the disposition “rubric” (a standardised form of assessment) in the “fabrication” (Ball, 2003) of representations around the ideal teacher in an inclusive and experimental school in the City of Buenos Aires. The enactment of this method of assessment reorganised practices, change relations amongst teachers and school authorities, and interpellated teachers´ work identities—defining how a good teacher should be and work. We argue that rubrics are demanding teachers to be flexible, reflexive, responsible for students’ trajectories, able to work and make decisions with others, and to recognise students with difficulties and respond to them with personalisation as a key teaching strategy. Based on a qualitative study, we examine institutional meetings of the so-called “Colegio de Docentes” attended by school authorities, pedagogic consultants, and the great majority of teachers; semi-structured interviews; and school documents.