Profiling the Dynamics among Assessment, Curriculum, and Pedagogy Shaped by Language Tutor Identity and Language Assessment Literacy: A Reflexive Thematic Analysis of TESOL in Community Settings

Abstract

Language tutor identity and language assessment literacy shape teaching practice. Tutors’ roles are especially critical in informal, community-based contexts, where they assist learners in one-on-one settings without fixed curricular or assessments. While previous studies have examined tutor identity in these contexts from a sociocultural perspective, little attention has been given to their teaching practices from an assessment standpoint. Therefore, this research aims at exploring how language tutors’ identities and their language assessment literacy influence pedagogy through curriculum decisions emerging from unintended assessment practices. This qualitative study employed Kremmel and Harding’s (2020) language assessment literacy framework to guide the development of the interview schedule. Methodologically, Castillo-Montoya’s (2016) Interview Protocol Refinement framework was adhered to, ensuring reliability and validity of the semi-structured one-on-one interviews. Ten volunteer tutors from an adult English literacy programme in Australia participated in these interviews, which were analysed using ATLAS.ti following Braun and Clarke’s (2020) Reflexive Thematic Analysis. The analysis revealed three major themes: (1) ‘Interaction as Assessment’, (2) ‘Assessment as Curriculum’, (3) ‘Socratic Questioning as Pedagogy’. These findings underscore the importance of language tutor education informing purposeful use of assessment in teaching to cohesively link assessment with curriculum and pedagogy in TESOL in community settings.