Roth & McGinn (1998) - unDELETE Science Education:/lives/work/voices

Roth, Wolff-Michael, & McGinn, Michelle K. (1998). >unDELETE Science Education:/Lives/Work/Voices. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 35(4), 399-421.

Main Point

 * Grades stabilize educational actor network (e.g. student-teacher-parents-administrators)
 * Inscriptions (grades) are stabilized by institutions that create them (i.e. school boards, college admissions)
 * "as all inscriptions that speak for and on behalf of people or objects, grades silence and DELETE the work of a range of people and objects." (p. 403)

Role of Grades

 * Grades are representations (inscriptions) that affect construction of the Self and Other in classrooms
 * Universal medium of exchange that signal understanding of subjects (most for universities) - sorting mechanism
 * "grades constitute a technology that DELETEs what people care about: their lives, work, and voices." (p. 401)
 * Grades inherently political that represent dominant ideologies and agendas
 * "Through the exams, knowledge is not simply tested, but produced; this new knowledge is clearly political." (p. 408)
 * Affect students' approval of learning environment - students with high grades approve; students with lower grades want change but are fearful of repercussions
 * as  Boundary objects  - have many different uses in different settings (e.g. high grades and low grades send different signals to college admissions)
 * Requirements of Boundary Objects: 1) flexible/weak structure used in different social domains; 2) strong nature with constrained meaning w/ little room for interpretation
 * Symbolic capital that can be used (e.g. to get into a better science program; getting reward from parents for good grades)
 * Grading emerged from 18th century record-keeping in military academies (perfect for discipline and uniformity)

Actor Network Framework

 * Inscribing (e.g. giving grades) produces differences among actors (students) in the network
 * Interests of University Admissions (need to predict who will be successful) -> standardized tests -> learning standards -> teachers helping students succeed
 * Me: Now Interests of Businesses -> University curriculum. Will this change the role of grades in high school?
 * Power of actors determined by their role as gatekeepers for other actors (e.g. teachers grade students)
 * "focus on and fascination with shifting, unstable alliances, a concern for strategy and rhetoric, and a disinclination to accept any single originating and decisive center of power." (p. 416)

Effect of Changing Grading System

 * Gatekeepers and those with high grade symbolic capital resist change; those less successful would like change
 * Teachers hesitant to change because fear harming students' chances at getting into good college