Arviointi ja yliopisto-opetus kilpailevien diskurssien ja jännitteiden kenttinä : diskurssianalyysi yliopistossa opettavien puheesta

In this study I analysed the discursive construction of assessment and university teaching in a Finnish university context. The aim of this study is to understand assessment as a micro-level political and pedagogical phenomenon, while also taking a wider look at the macro-level university teaching contexts. Through them, I have attempted to discursively understand the multiplicity of assessment and university teaching within the educational policy framework, in which assessment, university teaching and the university are at an increasing rate being subjected to a variety of global education policy aspirations and expectations. The theoretical frame of this study is built on theories around assessment, university teaching, and social constructionism. I collected the data for this discourse analytical study by elite sampling and through individual interviews with university teachers (N=12). I analysed the data using methods of three-tier critical discourse analysis. As a result of the first research question, I was able to identify five discourses of assessment: the discourse of judging, competence discourse, the discourse of knowing better, the discourse of caring, and the discourse of growth. As a result to the second research question, I present three discursive tensions: the tension between research and teaching, the tension between performance and learning, and the tension between monologicality and dialogicality. The study showed that both assessment and university teaching were construed between different and diverse fields of discourses and tensions. Assessment and university teaching were politicized and neo-pedagogised. The neoliberal education policy was seen to bring external, undesired and fabricated features to the understandings of assessment, teaching and learning. The neoliberal university policy was challenged from inside the university by more traditional and educational discourses and tensions of assessment and university teaching.