Thursday, March 26, 2015 | 1:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Scarfe Library Block, Room 278
Invited guest speaker: Dr. Bryan Maddox, University of East Anglia
Dr. Bryan Maddox will share the story of a standardized test item ‘The Mongolian Camel’ from its initial development, to the production of statistical data. We are introduced to various characters along the way – the ‘framework’, Mongolian camels, Item Response Theory, and statistical artifacts. Each of these has its own personality and ontological perspective.
During this special seminar, you’ll gain an insider perspective on literacy assessment practice in large-scale educational assessments with this intimate ethnographic account of the production of statistical knowledge and the challenges of cross-cultural testing. It unpacks the ‘black boxes’ of assessment by examining the life and times of a test item, and its travels and transformations.
To understand how large-scale literacy assessment programs work it is necessary to get ‘inside the assessment machine’.
This seminar draws on Actor Network Theory (ANT) and Science and Technology Studies (STS) to provide insights into global literacy assessment projects and their role in the production of educational policy as numbers.
No RSVP required. Everyone is welcome to attend!
Bryan Maddox is a Senior Lecturer in Education and International Development at the University of East Anglia, UK. He specializes in ethnographic and mixed methods research on globalized literacy assessments and the literacy practices of non-schooled adults. His ethnographic research on assessment practice provides accounts of testing situations, and how standardized tests travel and are received across diverse cultural settings. He is the co-editor of Literacy as Numbers: Researching the Politics and Practices of International Literacy Assessment, CUP, 2015.