Wow, first of all, I was intrigued by the description of this piece of work and it’s links with Foucault. I’ve read a listing of his work before and often find the thoughts he suggests very intriguing and relatable in a real world context. Feeling interested in how Barrow related him to the assessment practice was what lead me to read this piece and I am so so glad that I did.
To summarise Barrow is suggesting that assessment within a design (he contrasts this with a business) degree covers both the outcome of the work and the decision making process that the students undertook in order to get there. By taking this journey with the students the teachers have the opportunity to guide and frame the student’s decision making process in the context of their work which also equips them with critical thinking practices that they then use to form their own selves and their individual interaction and place within the wold and society at large.
Personally I love this ideology and believe it should be the purpose of higher education as a whole, encouraging individuals to question the world around them and to consider what their role could be within this and how it affects others. Unfortunately having dwelt on this and spoken with classmates and colleagues about this concept it seems increasingly difficult to implement within the majority of higher education institutes as there are criteria set by those above us in the university who need deliverable quantitative data on how students are learning and progressing which is not at all cohesive to this concept.
Thankfully however I work as a specialist technician outside of existing course frameworks and so have the freedom to implement this much more fully within my own work, and I will think more on how this might be possible within my teaching environment.