Abstract

Assessment accommodations, such as extra time or personal space during examinations, have been traditionally studied through psychological perspectives. In this study, a critical approach is used instead to reframe assessment accommodations as sociocultural practices in the context of higher education. Drawing on discursive-deconstructive reading, this study addresses student positioning in documents and texts concerning assessment accommodations in the context of Finnish higher education. Deconstructed from these documents are the positions of ‘assessee’ and ‘impaired’. It is shown that both positions limit students’ agency by drawing on the medical model of disability. The study underlines the specific role assessment has in constructing disabilities in higher education. Further, the study calls for critical research to address – and challenge – the ableist agenda of rendering the structural issues of assessment into disabled students’ medical and psychological states.

• Points of interest

• Assessment accommodations, such as extra time or personal space in testing situations, are commonly used in higher education to allow everyone to participate in assessment.

• This study takes a critical approach towards assessment accommodations by analysing their social and cultural consequences.

• Documents concerning assessment of disabled students were analysed in the context of Finnish higher education.

• In the documents, the students were positioned as ‘assessees’ because they were seen as the targets of assessment – which, according to the documents, mostly consisted of examinations.

• The students were largely positioned as ‘impaired’ through the medical language used across the documents. The students were also seen as ‘special’ and ‘different’ compared to ‘other’ students.

• The documents largely saw disabled students as the problem to be fixed, rather than the examination-driven assessment system itself. I argue that this is an ableist agenda.

摘要

评估调整，例如考试期间的额外时间或个人空间，传统上是通过心理学视角进行研究的。在本研究中，采用批判性方法将评估调整重新定义为高等教育背景下的社会文化实践。本研究利用话语解构性阅读，探讨了芬兰高等教育背景下学生在有关评估便利的文件和文本中的定位。从这些文件中解构出来的是“评估者”和“受损者”的立场。研究表明，这两个职位都通过借鉴残疾医学模型来限制学生的能动性。该研究强调了在高等教育中构建残疾的具体作用评估。更远，

• 兴趣点

• 评估便利，例如测试情况下的额外时间或个人空间，通常用于高等教育，以允许每个人参与评估。

• 这项研究通过分析其社会和文化后果，对评估住宿采取了批判性的方法。

• 在芬兰高等教育的背景下分析了有关残疾学生评估的文件。

• 在文件中，学生被定位为“评估者”，因为他们被视为评估的对象——根据文件，评估主要包括考试。

• 通过文件中使用的医学语言，学生在很大程度上被定位为“受损”。与“其他”学生相比，这些学生也被视为“特殊”和“不同”。

• 这些文件在很大程度上将残疾学生视为需要解决的问题，而不是考试驱动的评估系统本身。我认为这是一个有能力的议程。