Grading Justice

Teacher-Activist Approaches to Assessment

Edited by Kristen C. Blinne - Contributions by Kristen C. Blinne; Allison D. Brenneise; Mark Congdon Jr.; Summer Cunningham; David Deifell; Leandra Hernandez; David H. Kahl Jr.; Londie T. Martin; Kristen McIntyre; Juliane Mora; David Palmer; C. Kyle Rudick and Sarah Upton

In Grading Justice: Teacher-Activist Approaches to Assessment, new and seasoned teachers are invited to engage with socially-just approaches of assessment, including practices aimed at resisting and undoing grading and assessment altogether, to create more democratic grading practices and policies, foregrounding the transformative potential of communication within their courses. The contributions in this collection encourage readers to consider not only how educators might assess social justice work in and beyond the classroom, but also to imagine what a social justice approach to grading and assessment would mean for intervening into unjust modes of teaching and learning. Educators wishing to explore critical modes of grading and assessment, grounded in social justice, will find this book a timely and relevant pedagogical guide for their teaching and scholarship.

Lexington Books

Pages: 555 • Trim: 6½ x 9

978-1-7936-0955-7 • Hardback • January 2021 • $139.00 • (£107.00)

978-1-7936-0956-4 • eBook • January 2021 • $60.00 • (£46.00)

Series: Critical Communication Pedagogy

Subjects: Language Arts & Disciplines / Communication Studies, Education / Evaluation & Assessment, Social Science / Activism & Social Justice

Grading Justice

Teacher-Activist Approaches to Assessment

Hardback

eBook

Summary

In Grading Justice: Teacher-Activist Approaches to Assessment, new and seasoned teachers are invited to engage with socially-just approaches of assessment, including practices aimed at resisting and undoing grading and assessment altogether, to create more democratic grading practices and policies, foregrounding the transformative potential of communication within their courses. The contributions in this collection encourage readers to consider not only how educators might assess social justice work in and beyond the classroom, but also to imagine what a social justice approach to grading and assessment would mean for intervening into unjust modes of teaching and learning. Educators wishing to explore critical modes of grading and assessment, grounded in social justice, will find this book a timely and relevant pedagogical guide for their teaching and scholarship.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 555 • Trim: 6½ x 9

978-1-7936-0955-7 • Hardback • January 2021 • $139.00 • (£107.00)

978-1-7936-0956-4 • eBook • January 2021 • $60.00 • (£46.00)

Series: Critical Communication Pedagogy

Subjects: Language Arts & Disciplines / Communication Studies, Education / Evaluation & Assessment, Social Science / Activism & Social Justice

Author

Kristen C. Blinne is associate professor of communication studies at the State University of New York College at Oneonta.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Grieving (Un)Grading (In)Justices

Kristen C. Blinne

1- Rhetoric of Grades: Evaluating Student Work and Its Consequences

David Deifell

2- Mobilizing a Critical Universal Design for Learning Framework for Justice Minded Course Design and Assessment

Mark Congdon Jr. and Allison D. Brenneise

3- Honoring Viviencias: A Borderlands Approach to Higher Education Pedagogy Justice

Leandra H. Hernandez and Sarah De Los Santos Upton

4- Walking the Tightrope: Navigating the Tensions of Teaching and Grading Communication Content Inside and Outside the Discipline

Juliane Mora

5- Student-Activist Mentor Letters as a Form of Social Movement-Building in Communication Activism Pedagogy

David L. Palmer

6- Love Letters Gone Wrong: Complicating the Romantic Ideal of Democratic Processes in the College Classroom

Londie T. Martin and Kristen A. McIntyre

7- Are We Just Grading or Grading Justly?: Adventures with Non-Traditional

Assessment

Kristen C. Blinne

8- “Ungrading” Communication: Awareness Pedagogy as Activist Assessment

Kristen C. Blinne

9-Resisting the Detrimental Effects of Grade Inflation on University Faculty and Studentsthrough Critical Communication Pedagogy

David H. Kahl Jr.

10-Rate My Performance, or Just Sing Along: A Critical Look at Student Evaluations of Teaching

Summer Cunningham

11-The Seven Lesson Faculty Member: Outlining Assessment’s Harm to Faculty

C. Kyle Rudick

About the Contributors

Reviews

A conceptually rich and pedagogically innovative collection of essays that will inspire and guide all communication educators, but especially critical communication teacher-activists who promote social justice, to think carefully about and employ grading/assessment practices that are socially just.
— Lawrence R. Frey, University of Colorado, Boulder

All across higher education, faculty grumble about doing their grading while students complain about how they were graded; administrators want more assessments from departments while accrediting institutions want more evaluations from colleges; the Old Guard argues for holding the line on norms that were never fair while disruptors experiment with methods that can leave you scratching your head in wonder. We educators are awash in grading disputes and debates about evaluation—and it is driving us mad. Grading Justice dives into this dilemma with gusto, good advice, and compelling case studies demonstrating how to think about grading as an exercise in building educational communities rooted in an ethic of care. Grading Justice demonstrates that the process of grading each student can be inclusive, transparent, and fair; more broadly, it argues that rethinking our practices around grading constitutes a first step toward reimagining the relationships between education, civic engagement, and social justice.
— Stephen John Hartnett, University of Colorado Denver

This collection of writings is an intervention into the taken-for-granted praxis of traditional—and unjust—modes of assessment and grading. The contributions herein are personal, political, analytical, critical, insightful, and helpful, all pointing toward a more humane and compassionate pedagogy. I invite all teachers, students, and administrators to read this book and seriously reconsider how we value and evaluate learning and education. It's time for change, and this book is calling us to action.
— Jason Del Gandio, Temple University

In Grading Justice, Kristen Blinne calls readers to interrogate the multiple ways assessment systems often perpetuate injustices in the college classroom and beyond. New and seasoned professors will find insights for critically reflecting on their own assessment practices and deploying communication pedagogies for social justice. I highly recommend this book for communication graduate students in pedagogy courses.
— Patricia Parker, Chair, Department of Communication, UNC-Chapel Hill

I have been teaching at the college level for almost 30 years now and have always wished for the broad scope of ideas, experiences, and praxis of grading that this collection brings together. This book reads like a compass toward grading justice while expertly avoiding the more typical how-to approach often found in assessment scholarship. I have come out full of new ideas and grading possibilities, further questions and imaginations about grading justly, and a renewed reassurance that the pervasive and complex issue of assessment is finally being confronted and interrogated ever gently and with the missing compassion by a critical studies lens. I look forward to using it in my classes and scholarship in years to come.

— Marcelo Diversi, Washington State University, Vancouver