Utbildningens bedömningskulturer i granskningens tidevarv

Abstract

The aim of this article is to highlight and question four central issues in the relation between the audit society and education assessment cultures, with Sweden used as a case study. With reference to a series of completed projects, I discuss 1) the audit society as an expression of globalization, 2) evaluation as an instrument of steering, 3) the formalization of assessment practices, 4) the renegotiations occuring between education policy, practice and research and 5) the audit society, assessment cultures and legitimation issues. In addition, a number of recently initiated and forthcoming projects with relevance for the further development of knowledge on education assessment culture are presented and motivated. Finally, it is argued that education as science has a specific contribution to make in the multidisciplinary research field of assessment cultures. In the end it comes down to how and in what way the assessment culture promotes or counteracts different educational trajectories and the re/production of the social culture.