Convalescence from Modernity: Writing Assessment in the Epoch of Scientism

Abstract

While some argue that post-modernity has overcome the era of modernity, claiming a rupture from previous ways of thinking and acting, reports of the ‘death of modernity’ have been greatly exaggerated. Its tenets continue to order and constitute values—transmitted by cultural dispositions—and frame North American conversations about assessment, technology, and educational methodology. The governing philosophical assumption of writing assessment theory is scientism. It is a modernist prejudice, which is unseen and unquestioned, that assumes scientific thinking is the best—the "strongest" thinking—because it produces quantified, generalized, reliable, and true information.To convalesce from modernity, we must continue to weaken the implicit and explicit cultural dispositions that transparently structure assessment practices. We have failed to persuade stakeholders that we should assess cognitively complex performances, which require hermeneutic interpretation to evaluate students’ deep understandings and our programs’ effectiveness.A postmodern disposition allows us to recover a balanced view of the benefits that scientific practices give us. We can convalesce from the quest for certainty, the fear of subjectivity, and the discourse of technology, and develop a healthier disposition regarding both the power and usefulness of science. Such a recovery would create new dispositions to accept probable truths as events within historical horizons and to assess intellectual activity— how students use and apply knowledge. Only a retrieval of the irreducible complexity of student learning and writing will create the context to revise the practice and theory of educational assessment.Key words: writing and educational assessment theories, Canadian writing assessment, consequences of modernity, discourse of technology, accountability