Participative assessment and student's negotiation: a proposal based on the Pedagogy of Ignorance

The participation of students in as many facets of their education as possible is related to a democratic education, perhaps even with emancipatory intentions. This article describes and critically assesses an experience in which future teachers in training discussed and decided the evaluation system of a subject, as well as the qualification criteria. To do this, teachers adopted the Pedagogy of Ignorance, based on the postulates of the French philosopher Ranciere. Innovation was evaluated from the interpretive paradigm. From this point of view, the data were collected through the reflexive diaries of the students and teachers and two discussion groups. Thus, after the analysis, the data show the complexity of the negotiation task, supported by a multitude of sessions dedicated to it, but also reflect its usefulness for understanding evaluation, its values and benefits, and its reflective power. In this sense, the students moved between satisfaction with the transfer of authority and the need to accumulate knowledge. In addition, the paper shows the teachers' emotions caused by a very complex innovation, such as a certain restlessness. That said, it is concluded that these experiences are necessary for a critical and reflective formation, to a certain extent counter-hegemonic, although they are still simulations of emancipation.