‘Because then you could never ever get a job!’: children’s constructions of NAPLAN as high-stakes

Howell, Angelique

doi:10.1080/02680939.2017.1305451

Cited by 30 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 26 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…‘Students who feel connected, safe and secure are more likely to be active participants in their learning and to achieve better physical, emotional, social and educational outcomes.’ These aspirations however are constrained by the resource limitations, school structures and practices of the ‘real’ space’. Research and media reports increasingly document the significant anxiety experienced by many students confronted by the ‘ideal’ of high performance as measured on single sitting high stakes tests such as NAPLAN (Howell, 2017; Manuel et al, 2018). Additionally wellbeing objectives are not always aligned with the historical and societal beliefs that construct Australian schools as monolingual learning spaces despite the research evidence showing the academic and wellbeing benefits of valuing all of students’ linguistic and cultural resources (Creese & Blackledge, 2015; Duarte, 2019; French, 2016; Rosiers et al, 2018).…”

Section: The Theoretical Frame: the Trialectic Of Spatial Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using the translanguaging space to facilitate poetic representation of language and identity

Dutton

Rushton

2020

Language Teaching Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Australian students come from a wide range of linguistic and cultural backgrounds with each context providing unique challenges. Tensions however exist between the intentions to address diversity and the competing influence of a high-stakes context that prioritizes monolingual classroom practices and diminishes teachers’ use of engaging pedagogy. Viewed through the lens of socio-spatial theory, these tensions highlight how the ideal of education for diversity is re-shaped by the everyday practices in schools and systems. This can result in monolingual ‘firstspace’ practices that do little to develop the knowledge of language and culture that is central to students’ engagement with learning. This article reports ethnographic research in which secondary subject English teachers challenged routinized monolingual practices and re-imagined their classroom practices. The use of translanguaging and the reading and writing of poetry – translanguaging poetry pedagogy – created ‘space’ to support a dynamic process in which students could use all their linguistic resources to produce identity texts. The use of translanguaging and identity texts disrupts a transmission pedagogy that positions the student as a blank slate. Teachers reported how translanguaging poetry pedagogy moved from a ‘thirdspace’ practice to a ‘what we do’ or ‘firstspace’ practice as they came to see that using students’ full language repertoire is a way to return the power of language to their students. The resultant translanguaging space and the symbolic propensity of poetry helped students to develop powerful personal representations and reinforces the need for pedagogies that acknowledge students’ diverse backgrounds, and honor the languages and identity of all students.

show abstract

Section: The Theoretical Frame: the Trialectic Of Spatial Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using the translanguaging space to facilitate poetic representation of language and identity

Dutton

Rushton

2020

Language Teaching Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Other Australian research with teachers finds that they identify NAPLAN as having a negative impact on student wellbeing (Cummings et al, 2018), with reports of increased student anxiety and stress, or even crying (Thompson, 2013;Rice, Dulfer, Polesel & O'Hanlon, 2015). Howell's (2017) research with primary school students in Australia found that NAPLAN tests were construed as high stakes by students and associated with negative emotional responses such as anxiety, even though the policy intention is that such tests are low stakes for students. Cummings et al (2018) found that around one third of students reported feeling worried or sad before and during NAPLAN testing.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparing student motivations for and emotional responses to national standardised tests and internal school tests: The devil in the detail

Dowley¹,

Rice

2022

Australian Journal of Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

National testing of students has become an increasingly prevalent policy tool, often implemented to drive improvement through increased accountability and heightened competition between schools. Such testing has been found to generate negative emotional responses among students, including increased stress and anxiety . However, there is little examining whether such responses are associated specifically with national testing regimes or are more general responses to testing situations. This study surveyed 206 students in Australian secondary schools to compare responses to NAPLAN and internal school tests. Students reported higher expectations for their performance in internal school tests than for NAPLAN, higher levels of boredom for NAPLAN and greater levels of confidence for their internal school tests. While most students reported low levels of negative emotional responses to NAPLAN, a small group of students reported strong negative emotional responses to both NAPLAN and internal school tests, suggesting that negative responses to national testing programs may be more dependent on the individual student.

show abstract

“…Findings suggest children in low SES public schools frequently reported negative emotions regarding NAPLAN, drawing faces that showed fear, anxiety and sadness (Swain et al, 2018). In contrast, independent Catholic schools found more variation in children's responses to NAPLAN with negative responses mainly related to its unclear purpose and expressed as frustration, anger and boredom (Howell, 2017). Howell also found Year 7 students had more negative attitudes towards NAPLAN than younger cohorts, concerned it would affect their progression through school and into higher education.…”

Section: Student Attitudes and Emotionsmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Some studies have specifically examined the effect of NAPLAN on student wellbeing (Howell, 2017;Lingard et al, 2016;Swain et al, 2018). Findings suggest children in low SES public schools frequently reported negative emotions regarding NAPLAN, drawing faces that showed fear, anxiety and sadness (Swain et al, 2018).…”

Section: Student Attitudes and Emotionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

NAPLAN discourses: a systematic review after the first decade

Rose

Low‐Choy

Singh

et al. 2018

Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In 2018 NAPLAN (National Assessment Program-Literacy and Numeracy) reached a 10-year milestone. Introduced in 2008 by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), NAPLAN assesses student literacy and numeracy in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. As a key education reform in Australia, NAPLAN has provoked critical debate across public, political and academic fora. This study synthesises themes emerging from a quantitative systematic review of NAPLAN-related literature to identify the main discourses that have emerged in response to this large-scale standardised assessment programme. The dominant discourses coalesce around 'datafication', 'social justice', 'affect and emotion', and 'accountability and performativity'. The stakes are high in these discursive struggles around NAPLAN as large-scale standardised testing is reconstituting the purposes of education, the professionalism and professional identities of educators, and affecting parents and students' engagement in schooling.

show abstract

‘Because then you could never ever get a job!’: children’s constructions of NAPLAN as high-stakes

Cited by 30 publications

References 26 publications

Using the translanguaging space to facilitate poetic representation of language and identity

Using the translanguaging space to facilitate poetic representation of language and identity

Comparing student motivations for and emotional responses to national standardised tests and internal school tests: The devil in the detail

NAPLAN discourses: a systematic review after the first decade

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About