Imagined, but not Experienced, Community in Grading in Higher Education


Anastasia Kulpa, University of Alberta/Concordia University of Edmonton

Although existing research demonstrates that academic disciplines develop their own cultures, these cultures do not address all aspects of academic work. Based on interviews with faculty in psychology, this paper argues that faculty draw on silences in their disciplinary cultures to construct themselves and their grading in ways they understand as both positive and legitimate, including be essentially the same, or better than, what their colleagues are doing. Their responses to these silences also suggest some expectation of a disciplinary culture related to grading, but not a willingness to seek out the interactions which might produce such a culture.

This paper will be presented at the following session: