Research assessment as a pedagogical device: Bernstein, professional identity and Education in New Zealand

Abstract

Recent restructuring of research funding for New Zealand's higher education institutions is 'outputs-driven'. Under the Performance Based Research Fund, units of assessment of research quality are individuals, every degree teacher receiving a confidential score of A, B or C (if deemed 'research active') or 'R' ('Research Inactive'). Despite its relatively high number of A and B rated individuals, Education's collective ranking was low. I interviewed staff and draw on Bernstein to explore how this process affects professional identity formation, a process involving engagement with changing 'official' external identities. I overview Bernsteinian concepts, historicise Education's changing official identities and illustrate how these enabled and constrained participants' self-definitions before, during, and immediately after, the quality evaluation. The imposition of audit culture reproduces old theory/practice binaries.