In societies following the meritocratic ideal, educational assessment plays a key role in allocating life chances to individuals. These allocation processes need to be perceived as fair by those concerned if they are to possess legitimacy. However, what is considered fair differs between different countries. The paper traces some of the basic conceptions of what constitutes fair assessment in schools in Germany, Sweden and England, using the rules and regulations governing assessment as its empirical basis. Concepts developed by empirical social justice research are used as an analytic lens for comparing the three countries’ ways of producing legitimate, fair assessment.

 

Seminar IBEI Waldow