MSSTA is currently accepting submissions for its Spring 2023 journal:
 
You are invited to submit to the Spring 2023 Issue of the Manitoba Social Science Teachers’ Association (MSSTA) Journal!
  • The race to win turns us all into losers 
    • Alfie Kohn
In 2006, Manitoba Education released, Rethinking Classroom Assessment with Purpose in Mind. This document flipped the traditional assessment pyramid to reflect the assessment literature. Research has repeatedly demonstrated that assessment for learning (AfL) is a powerful practice to promote learning. The primacy of AfL is evident in the policy directives, resources and professional development of nearly every Canadian province and territory. For these reasons, the document reduced the focus on assessment of learning and granted more space to assessment as/for learning. 

Assessment as/for learning decenters grades, and invites students into the assessment process. In this way, assessment is no longer something that is done to students, but is done with, by and for students (Manitoba Education, 2006). Since the release of this document, social studies educators have engaged in rich conversations about the purpose of assessment, and about how they could alter their assessment practices to centre learning rather than grading. Many more questions have emerged from these conversations: In a social studies environment, how does grading normalize individualism and competition and become a barrier to cooperative learning spaces? How do our assessment practices interfere with our pedagogical practices?  Do my assessment practices invite varied literacies and modes of expression? How/do we assess discussion and deliberation?  Are current assessment and grading practices irreconcilable with decolonizing practices? What are the philosophical and practical implications of ungrading? There is no doubt that assessment practices continue to invoke questions of ethics, fairness and validity. We would like this issue to be an exploration of these questions. 

Work against: Grades are demoralizing for students; they are often not about learning, but about reward and punishment 
Encourage thinking quality of our assessment: be fair, valid and ethical 
Encouraging people to think about assessment that isn’t about grading. 

​Through this issue, we hope to explore the ways in which social studies educators in Manitoba are rethinking their assessment practices. 

Educators can submit to any section of the journal: 
  • Pedagogy: scholarly writing connected to the issue theme. Writers should aim for 5-7 double-spaced pages. Submissions accepted in this section will serve as the anchor essay for the entire issue. 
  • Practice: class activities, lessons and/or unit plans. 
  • Professional Development: events, learning resources, books, podcasts, organizations including student groups
  • Photos: If you have any photographs of Manitoba that you would like featured in the issue, we would love to include them. 

Submissions should be sent to msstajournal@gmail.com no later than February 1st, 2023. We hope to publish this issue in March, 2023.  Please send your submissions as word documents. 

For immediate response to any journal inquiries, please reach out to shannon.moore@umanitoba.ca. 

If you are interested in advertising in our journal, please contact us directly; we are in the process of developing protocols and policies around advertising.  

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