Dr Bilal Nazir

Assessment experiences of ethnic minority students in UK higher education present complex challenges in identifying salient barriers to inclusive practice. Ethnic minority students can be excluded by a range of factors which include the procedure, content and context of assessment. By analysing twelve narratives of British Pakistani male graduates, this study examines student engagement with traditional and more contemporary assessments and explores how students negotiate racialised learning spaces. Findings highlight student disengagement, and subsequent underperformance, in more traditional academic assessments than occupational and practical forms of assessment. To this end, practical assessments, which reflect the aims of authentic assessment approaches, were considered most inclusive, primarily due to their alignment with students’ career aspirations, though critical considerations around inclusive learning spaces are still required to mitigate extraneous racial exclusion.

The higher participation of England’s ethnic minority students on vocational courses at the age of 16 initiates them onto the ‘lower tier’ pathway in tertiary education. Lower tier implies participating in certain vocational courses and entering lower status universities. Consequently, ethnic minority students in England have a weaker labour market position upon graduation. Using semi-structured interviews, this article explores the decision-making process of 12 British Pakistani students, as they are initiated on this lower tier pathway. The findings suggest that decision-making is a negotiation of student biography with ethnic capital and ‘racial warehousing’. This interplay funnels many ethnic minority students towards the lower tier pathway, where selecting certain vocational courses is deemed as the only pathway feasible for progression. This study sheds light on the need to promote alternative vocational pathways to England’s ethnic minority students.

Research on student assessment literacy (SAL) has explored several points of interest, from broad conceptualisations of what SAL entails to developing SAL interventions and evaluating the overall benefits of SAL.  There has been limited SAL research, however, from the student perspective, and how SAL actualises and transforms throughout the student lifecycle.   Through the narratives of 22 final year undergraduate students in northern England, the present study explored SAL by focusing on student strategies in completing written coursework assessments. The context of coursework assessment provided insight into assessment practices during the interval from the issuing of the assessment to submission, and the increasing stakes of university assessments from first to final year. Assessment strategies undertaken to complete coursework showcased how students perceive best practice in relation to (1) coursework preparation, (2) engaging with support and (3) engaging with feedback. Findings highlight the need to centre student identity in relation to SAL actualisation and transformation, given that participants negotiated various stakes involved in university assessments, in relation to their unique learner identities.   Some participants exhibited minimal SAL transformation but high levels of actualisation, while others transform in relation to high-stakes assessment and are selective in the degree of actualisation. All methods of SAL actualisation and transformation stem in part from students’ pre-university experiences.