Testing like William the Conqueror
Start Date
23-6-2013 10:00 AM
End Date
23-6-2013 11:30 AM
Keywords
school accountability, history, culture
Description
The spread of academic testing for accountability purposes in multiple countries has obscured at least two historical purposes of academic testing: community ritual and management of the social structure. Testing for accountability is very different from the purpose of academic challenges one can identify in community “examinations” in 19th century North America, or exams' controlling access to the civil service in Imperial China. Rather than testing for ritual or access to mobility, the modern uses of testing are much closer to the state‐building project of a tax census, such as the Domesday Book, the social engineering projects described in James Scott's Seeing like a State (1998) or the “mapping the world” project that David Nye described in America as Second Creation (2004). This paper will explore both the instrumental and cultural differences among testing as ritual, testing as mobility control, and testing as state‐building.
Rights Information
Testing like William the Conqueror
The spread of academic testing for accountability purposes in multiple countries has obscured at least two historical purposes of academic testing: community ritual and management of the social structure. Testing for accountability is very different from the purpose of academic challenges one can identify in community “examinations” in 19th century North America, or exams' controlling access to the civil service in Imperial China. Rather than testing for ritual or access to mobility, the modern uses of testing are much closer to the state‐building project of a tax census, such as the Domesday Book, the social engineering projects described in James Scott's Seeing like a State (1998) or the “mapping the world” project that David Nye described in America as Second Creation (2004). This paper will explore both the instrumental and cultural differences among testing as ritual, testing as mobility control, and testing as state‐building.
