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’I’ ll be a nothing’: structure, agency and the construction of identity through assessment [1]
Author(s) -
Reay Diane,
Wiliam Dylan
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
british educational research journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.171
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1469-3518
pISSN - 0141-1926
DOI - 10.1080/0141192990250305
Subject(s) - curriculum , psychology , agency (philosophy) , focus group , social psychology , nothing , identity (music) , anxiety , pedagogy , national curriculum , statement (logic) , developmental psychology , mathematics education , sociology , epistemology , social science , philosophy , physics , psychiatry , anthropology , acoustics
Drawing on data from focus group and individual interviews with Year 6 pupils in the term leading up to Key Stage 2 National Curriculum tests, this article explores the extent to which children's perceptions of the tests contribute to their understandings of themselves as learners. The tension between agency and structure becomes apparent in children's differential dispositions to view the testing process as a definitive statement about the sort of learner they are. Although children's responses are varied, what most share is a sense of an event which reveals something intrinsic about them as individuals. The article also explores the emotions, in particular the anxiety and fear, which permeate such understandings of the National Curriculum assessment process.