Assessment plays a crucial role in student learning in higher education. Until rather recently, the role of assessment in relation to inclusion has been unexplored. In this study, we conduct a research synthesis of 42 studies published between 2010 and 2022, including 868 student participants, to map the assessment experiences of students with disabilities in higher education. Specifically, we conduct a meta-ethnographic review to synthesise qualitative studies and capture the participants' lived experiences of assessment. Our analysis considers how these experiences reflect both inclusion and exclusion. We theorise these elusive terms through the ideas of access and participation. Most of the studies considered the students' imminent physical, perceptual and social access to assessment, such as in the cases of inaccessible examination halls or digital assessment systems. A smaller subset of the studies considered inclusion/exclusion as a matter of students’ social participation as fully accepted members of academia. In these studies, assessment was described as providing the students with opportunities to belong to academia, whereas experiences of exclusion portrayed assessment as a mechanism for social segregation and discrimination. Overall, our review shows that assessment is a primary barrier to the inclusion of students with disabilities in higher education. We propose that the predominant discourse of inclusion in assessment needs to widen from considering immediate access to assessment into considering how assessment regulates the full participation of diverse students in higher education. We discuss the implications of inaccessible assessment for all students and suggest that, ultimately, both access and participation are matters of student identity. Our review has important practical implications for the design of inclusive assessment in the current higher education contexts in which student cohorts are becoming increasingly diverse.

中文翻译：

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评估作为包容性问题：高等教育中残疾学生评估经历的元民族志回顾


评估在高等教育中的学生学习中起着至关重要的作用。直到最近，评估与包容性相关的作用仍未得到探索。在这项研究中，我们对 2010 年至 2022 年间发表的 42 项研究进行了研究综合，其中包括 868 名学生参与者，以绘制残疾学生在高等教育中的评估经历。具体来说，我们进行了元民族志审查，以综合定性研究并捕捉参与者的评估生活经历。我们的分析考虑了这些经历如何反映包容性和排斥性。我们通过访问和参与的概念将这些难以捉摸的术语理论化。大多数研究考虑了学生迫在眉睫的身体、感知和社会评估机会，例如在无法进入考场或数字评估系统的情况下。一小部分研究认为包容/排斥是学生作为学术界完全接受的成员的社会参与的问题。在这些研究中，评估被描述为为学生提供归属于学术界的机会，而排斥的经历将评估描述为社会隔离和歧视的机制。总体而言，我们的审查表明，评估是将残疾学生纳入高等教育的主要障碍。我们建议，将包容性纳入评估的主流话语需要从考虑立即获得评估扩大到考虑评估如何调节不同学生对高等教育的充分参与。我们讨论了无法访问评估对所有学生的影响，并建议最终访问和参与都是学生身份的问题。 我们的综述对于在当前高等教育背景下设计包容性评估具有重要的实际意义，因为学生群体变得越来越多样化。