Can competency assessment support struggles for community development and self-determination?

Abstract

In this paper an argument is presented that if competency assessment is to make any contribution as a potentially "liberating" curriculum strategy for struggles of community development and self-determination then it needs to contest the authoritarianism of the national qualification frameworks that have been established in Australia and New Zealand. This article critiques research and policy efforts, in particular for indigenous learners which seek to merely make authoritarian curriculum and assessment structures more culturally appropriate, more accessible and equitable rather than changing and democratising the structures themselves.