Paper short abstract:

This paper will explore the motivations underlying education systems by considering assessment as a primary indicator of educational values. It draws on ethnographic evidence collected in 2021 as part of a study on Buddhist monastic schooling in northern Thailand.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will explore the motivations underlying education systems by considering assessment as a primary indicator of educational values. Drawing on ethnographic evidence collected in 2021 as part of a study on Buddhist monastic schooling in northern Thailand, the paper will discuss the ways discourse on examinations helped to shape how education was valued by students and staff within the institution. Of particular interest are the competing modes of discourse that hold currency at the monastic school. On the one hand, staff at the school were engaged in a process of constructing an image of their school as a modern institution in line with national directives on the form and value of education. On the other, the monastic school is a fundamentally religious institution. As such, the students - all boys who have ordained as novice monks for the duration of their secondary schooling - are expected to develop virtues and abilities in line with a Buddhist ideal of comportment. The paper will present ethnographic vignettes demonstrating how competing ideals of motivation could cause frictions in how examinations were perceived and carried out.