The demons of evaluation: memories of teachers from when they were students

Abstract

This article takes forty narratives of teachers who recalled situations of particularly memorable evaluation situations that occurred when they were students. Of these forty narratives, thirty-one express an intolerable abuse of power. Nine express emancipatory evaluative practices.  Through  an  analysis  of  these  discourses,  the  meanings of the abuses – humiliation, violence, discrimination, deception, arbitrariness – and of the minority emancipation are quantified and qualified, seeking to explain these practices in the light of the historical, social, organizational and professional times. It is concluded that these practices need to be fought against and prevented; and, that stricter policies and practices of access to the profession and the exercise of more interactive pedagogic action are required.