Performativity As Pretence: A Study Of Testing Practices In A Compulsory School In Sweden

Our aim in this article is to analyse the impact of the standardised test on classroom practices in grade 5 in a compulsory school in western Sweden. In our analysis, the use of the concept of the pedagogical device (Bernstein 1996) provides a framework for understanding how high-stakes, standardised testing regulates classroom discourse and teachers' and students' classroom behaviours. The study was conducted during 2006-2007 as part of a larger ethnographic inquiry. The results reveal how the demands of the test impact upon the daily work in the classroom. In the neo-liberal approach to governance, standardised tests have become an important measure of quality. School practices run the risk of being viewed as valuable, only relative to the performance of teachers and students at the individual level. This view shifts the focus from a discussion about a societal responsibility to ensure that all children have equitable access to education, to a debate centred on the individual's responsibility to perform. The analysis reveals that the test was not carried out as intended. However, both teacher and the students respond to the test situation and the results as if it had been and as if the test really mattered.