“How to look at it differently”: Negotiating more inclusive assessment design with student partners

Higher education is increasingly becoming more inclusive of diverse student populations. Ensuring that assessment practices are inclusive of students with disabilities, however, remains a challenge. This chapter focuses on the use of students as partners as a mechanism to consider how exams could be reimagined in more inclusive ways. Drawing on workshop and reflection data from two universities involved in a National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education-funded project, the analysis provides insights into how power imbalances at the level of relationships within the group (i.e., between academic staff and students with disabilities) and at university systems level (i.e., assessment design/change processes) can create obstacles in projects intended to address issues of inclusivity and equity. The chapter underscores the need for universities to include diverse student voices in co-generative, dialogic approaches to assessment design.