Using Habermas to Evaluate Two Approaches to Negotiated Assessment

Recent discussions about learning and teaching have been strongly influenced by phenomenographic theories which focus on students' experience of learning. This theoretical orientation underestimates the importance of the tutor/student relationship. Habermas's theory of communicative action provides a model of student-tutor interaction which holds out the prospect of an 'emancipatory' adult education. By comparing two courses, both aimed at HE staff and both using forms of negotiated assessment, this paper examines the possibility of approaching the Habermassian 'ideal speech situation'. The course participants' experience of negotiated assessment is evaluated against the declared philosophy of the tutors. Although many of the ideals of the tutors found confirmation in the experience of the participants, the paper explores the factors which influenced the greater success achieved by one of the courses in approaching the Habermassian ideal than the other.