Assessment discourse and constructions of social reality in infant classrooms.

The analysis of assessment policy and practice from a critical/poststructuralist perspective is comparatively rare in education assessment writing. This paper is such an engagement. Texts derived from an earlier empirical study of assessment dialogue in infant classrooms were re-examined using a critical discourse analysis. While the approach was exploratory, the methodology and its outcomes are relevant to policy theory. The analysis examines two main aspects of classroom discourse – the performative, in relation to speech acts and metaphor – both for what they do in constructing personal and social realities for infant subjects. The discussion uses the concept of intertextuality to explore discourse relationships and change; it also considers the nature of dominant discourses and policy contestation. Questions about agency are raised. The complexity of policy as 'effect' is demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]