Marked
School Grades and the Quantified Life
1st Edition
Published on 4. June 2026
242 pages
978-1-911712-69-5 (ISBN)
Description
Numbers are a crucial mediator of how we understand the world, with humans the frequent subject of quantification. Drawing on in-depth fieldwork in a German school, Marked: School Grades and the Quantified Life is a nuanced account of the effects of grades on students, and a cautionary tale of the increasing quantification of human life.
More details
Series
Edition
1. Auflage
Language
English
Place of publication
La Vergne
United Kingdom
Target group
Adult education
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Reflowable
File size
1,80 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-911712-69-5 (9781911712695)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Noëlle Rohde is a social anthropologist with a philosophy background and an interest in the social dimension of numbers. She earned her doctorate from the University of Oxford where her thesis on grading in Germany won the Professor David Parkin Prize for the use of ethnographic methods. Besides quantification, Noëlle Rohde's academic interests are technology ethics, epistemology and critiques of meritocracy. She currently holds a postdoctoral scholarship at Paderborn University where she investigates quantification in sports.
Content
Introduction.....1
1. The global triumph of grades.....9
2. Schooling and grading - the German way.....21
3. Educational realities in a disadvantaged comprehensive school.....35
4. 'What did you get?' Lateral and hierarchical visibility through grades.....51
5. 'It's understandable if it destroys you, right?' Students' graded identities.....71
6. 'To assign people their place in society' - Marks and meritocracy.....87
7. 'Mostly in the heart' - Discipline and the corporeality of being graded.....103
8. 'She can make you into a tramp' - Testimonial injustice against the bearers of numbers.....127
9. On the ethics of quantification.....149
Conclusion.....171
