Appropriating Assessment: Possibilities for an Alliance Perspective through Teaching Social Foundations in Unusual Places

In this article, I explore teaching with a social foundations perspective in the unusual place of an Introduction to Assessment course for second-year, undergraduate, teacher candidates. By bringing the work of three candidates together with the four concerns of the proposed third edition of the Standards for Academic and Professional Instruction in Foundations of Education, Educational Studies, and Educational Policy Studies—P-12 students; professional educators; democratic educational practices; and research, policy, and advocacy—I argue for the possibility of alliance among educators through engagement of the interpretive, normative, and critical perspectives. Alliance did not emerge in the work of the three candidates—instead the Standards, as embodied in my teaching, furthered the dominance of the modern myths of progress and individualism. I propose however, that the addition of an alliance perspective to the three existing social foundations perspectives upon which the Standards rely might better allow for work within and across the concerns delineated in the Standards.