Encounters with Second Language Education Bureaucrats: Misunderstandings and Misgivings

Abstract

Recently, the Director of the Canadian Centre for Language Benchmarks emailed me about a presentation I had recently given regarding my research. He asked a colleague to review my presentation and subsequently asked me to correct what he considered inaccuracies in my work. In this piece, I outline some of the implications of the reviewer’s comments in terms of the nature of qualitative research and the value of academic freedom. I then use this email exchange with the Director as a starting point for some comments on politics, culture and the effects of high stakes second language assessment documents on citizenship education curriculum development.