Mccarthy, Francesca;
(2022)
Testing times? Exploring how pupils reacted to 2020 Covid-19 GCSE and A level exam cancellation.
Teachers and Teaching
10.1080/13540602.2022.2098268.
(In press).
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Abstract
This paper examines the reactions of English pupils who were preparing for GCSE and A-Level examinations to the 2020 exam cancellations resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. In doing so, it addresses a gap in international research related to high stakes testing by presenting pupils’ perspectives. It uses a Bourdieusian framework to explore the role that exams played within the everyday educational experiences of four secondary school pupils. I demonstrate that pupils displayed an exam-oriented habitus which both recognised and was critical of exams as part of the wider ‘game’ of education. The 2020 GCSE and A-Level exam cancellation disrupted this habitus, leading participants to critically question and challenge an exam-focused education system. With the current uncertainty regarding the 2021 GCSE and A-Level exams in England, this paper argues that listening to the voices of young people also has two implications for wider consideration. Young people are uniquely positioned to comment critically on the quality of education systems which focus on high stake assessment. Listening to such criticality realises the potential for equity, engaging with voices which have previously gone unheard.
Type: | Article |
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Title: | Testing times? Exploring how pupils reacted to 2020 Covid-19 GCSE and A level exam cancellation |
Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
DOI: | 10.1080/13540602.2022.2098268 |
Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2022.2098268 |
Language: | English |
Additional information: | Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. |
Keywords: | High stakes assessment, Covid-19, exam cancellation, Bourdieu, exam-oriented habitus |
UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Education, Practice and Society |
URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10169214 |
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