Week 7 Blog Post

Ideology is a system of ideas and ideals, especially one which forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy.  More broadly, it can be understood as a comprehensive set of beliefs, values, attitudes, and assumptions about how the world is or ought to be. These systems often explain the social, political, and economic order, and they can guide individuals and groups in their actions and interpretations of events. Simplistically, ideology just means a set of more or less coherent ideas, norms and values with which we interpret the things that go on around us. Quite often aligning to and with culture. And there are so many ideologies within teaching and education!

Connecting this to this week's main idea of interpellation (a concept used to explain ideology), assessment can be viewed as: How do people buy into ideologies? If we recognize and accept the misrecognition inherent in them, then we buy into them. Ideology is a framework we use to make sense of the world and has close links to culture. Some ideologies are far-fetched and unrealistic.

The process of being called upon by a person or through actions is called interpellation. This process works over long periods, through small, consistent influences over time. Our politics is filled with ideologies, and engaging with politics is a significant act of interpellation. Politicians attempt to persuade you to agree with their ideologies.

Ideologies within education is a major way people are interpellated. Education is fundamentally about changing people – taking children and shaping them. Education is a key interpellation goal of the government. Law is intended to bind us all together, regardless of individual beliefs. Human Rights attempts to bridge across different ideologies.

Considering assignments and assessments in terms of power, they serve as a measure of your ability. This includes your knowledge of content, engagement with activities, and adherence to deadlines. These tasks help solidify your learning and measure your performance against learning outcomes, establishing a clear connection with stratification (the arrangement or classification of something into different groups).

Considering the beliefs of the teacher, they may heavily emphasize individual grades and rankings from assessments, believing that these accurately reflect each student's effort and ability. Teachers might design assessments that clearly differentiate between students based on their performance. Historically, this has been the case with ability grouping and streaming within NZ classrooms. But why does it still exist today after extensive research and evidence to say that it is detrimental? Whose power and influence continues to persuade teachers that this practice is anything but satisfactory? The classroom teacher's emphasis on individual grades and rankings, driven by a meritocratic ideology, directly relates to the concept of interpellation, a term popularized by the Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser.

Interpellation is the process by which ideology creates subjects. It's how societal structures and dominant ideologies call out to individuals and position them as specific kinds of subjects within those systems. We internalize these "callings" and come to identify ourselves within the framework of the dominant ideology.

As a beginning teacher nearly 23 years ago, I believed wholeheartedly in these ideologies…

• You are a good student if you get high grades, an academic student of sorts. 

• You are a struggling student if you get low grades. Maybe you need to apply yourself more and just try harder. 

• Your effort and ability are directly reflected in this number. Why are you not applying yourself more?

Reinforcing the Ideology: This process of interpellation reinforces the meritocratic ideology itself. By accepting the teacher's emphasis on individual grades as a fair and accurate reflection of their worth, students contribute to the perpetuation of the belief that success is solely based on individual effort and ability. The system appears legitimate because individuals have internalized its categories and identify with the positions assigned to them.

In essence, a teacher isn't just assessing performance; they are actively shaping students' identities and their understanding of their place within the educational system and, by extension, society. The emphasis on individual grades and rankings, driven by the meritocratic ideology, "hails" students into specific subject positions (e.g., "high-achiever," "low-achiever"), and students, consciously or unconsciously, often accept these positions as part of their self-identity. This acceptance is a key mechanism through which ideology operates and maintains its dominance. I’ve always believed that some of the most successful people I know are not the academic high-achieving students that I could categorize, but the people who demonstrate resilience with life's cards that are dealt and their ability to persevere through adversity and work hard towards achieving goals they set for themselves. Is there such a thing as a counter-interpellation?

Concluding, my critical lens during week 7’s learnings  tells me there is nothing neutral about assessments but rather active interventions that contribute to the interpellation of students as subjects defined by their individual performance within a meritocratic framework.

References

Backer, D. I. (2019). The Gold and the Dross: Althusser for Educators. Brill. Chapter One: A beginner's guide to interpellation. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004394698