Ungrading: For Diversity Courses and Beyond

Overview: This interactive workshop on Ungrading, is a call to action for social workers to explore their own grading practices, to increase critical reflection, and to focus on dismantling white supremacy in grading. We will explore some strategies of Ungrading including an example utilized in a MSW Anti-Racism Practice course.Proposal text: Grading in higher education is driven by various (and often, competing) instructor goals including providing feedback to students, motivating students, comparing students, and measuring learning. But much of the research on grading suggests that we aren’t achieving these goals with our current grading practices. In fact, grading may inhibit the kind of pedagogical practices that could create a more effective and engaging classroom learning environment (Schinske & Tanner, 2014), particularly when teaching a social work course on diversity. It is difficult to grade a student on their changing thoughts, opinions, and understanding of the world. Ungrading is an approach that some social work professors have adopted in an attempt to measure student learning (Blum, 2020), which minimizes instructor bias and empowers learners. Ungrading requires instructors to reevaluate their pedagogies and redesign their courses, and the impact can be better, more inclusive/equitable outcomes for students and more rewarding experiences for instructors (Blum 2020).

In addition to benefits of Ungrading for student learning, the 2022 EPAS draft, Competency 4, states that students must “demonstrate cultural humility by applying critical reflection, self-awareness, and self-regulation to manage the influence of bias, power, privilege, and values…” (CSWE, 2022). We suggest that Ungrading is one way that we can help students increase their critical reflection, self-awareness, and self-regulation. We must prepare them to critically reflect in the classroom before they can utilize these skills in a practice settings.

Patton (2016) posits “white supremacy continues to flow throughout higher education literature and research” (p. 335). Higher education, including the discipline of social work, employs constructs, such as grading policies, seeded in this legacy. Specific characteristics of white supremacy culture embedded in higher education, include perfectionism, paternalism, either/or thinking, power hoarding, and objectivity (Jones & Okun, 2001). Social work should reevaluate grading policies and lead the way in institutions of higher learning. “Ungrading”, “de-grading” or “going gradeless” involves asking the students to do the work of critically evaluating their own learning (Blum, 2020). Ungrading is a way to encourage students from working to just get a good grade and instead motivate them to learn. It also involves asking the student what grade they think is correct (Blum, 2020). Ungrading in a course that focuses on anti-racism social work practice also allows students to explore the power dynamics and the potential social injustices that can occur due to potential unfair grading practices.

This interactive workshop is a call to action for social workers to explore their own grading practices, to increase critical reflection, and to focus on dismantling white supremacy in grading practices. We will explore some of the strategies of Ungrading including an example from one School of Social Work utilized in a MSW Anti-Racism Practice course. Student feedback and reactions from this required course will also be shared. In addition, we will explore the pros and cons of this Ungrading approach. Workshop participants will be encouraged to share their experiences with Ungrading and to work with peers to develop Ungrading assignments and/or strength current Ungrading practices.