TEST USE AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

In recent years language testers have taken a critical interest in the use of tests. Motivated by the notion of consequential validity (traceable to Messick, 1989), there has been an active debate about how far language testers should become involved in questions of test use and ethics (Davies, 1997a, 1997b). The judgment appears to be that these are issues language testers cannot ignore (Davies, 2008). For example, there is concern about the surreptitious use of language tests by states to achieve political goals (Fulcher, 2004, 2008; Shohamy, 2001a), or as tools in immigration policy to achieve ends that would otherwise appear illiberal (McNamara, 2005, 2008). The “meaning” of a test is being conceptualized either in terms of its role in policy (McNamara & Roever, 2006), where the test is usually co-opted into service for which it was not designed (Fulcher & Davidson, 2009), or in terms of its intended effects on stakeholders (Davidson and Fulcher, 2006; Fulcher & Davidson, 2007).