ABSTRACT
It is important for assessors to examine their own power, positionality, and biases as part of their assessment practice. In essence, awareness is the intertwining of a felt sense of knowing something with the analytical understanding of knowing something. The act of being aware gives rise to a subjective experience within individuals who are aware. The aware assessor considers multiple methods of data collection and selects the ones most appropriate to the context and assessment purpose. Most assessors are familiar with some form of an assessment cycle to guide their planning and practices. Acting with compassion and self-compassion is one way that justice can be either restored or ensured in every step of the equitable assessment process. By committing to restorative justice actions, colleges and universities have the opportunity to model how those systemic changes might work on larger scales, while also pressuring for those to occur in other parts of our society.
