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Session Title: Foundational Evaluation Principles and Processes: Embracing and Engaging Culture and Context
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Panel Session 700 to be held in International Ballroom on Saturday, November 10, 8:00 AM to 9:15 AM
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Sponsored by the Presidential Strand
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| Chair(s): |
| Michael Quinn Patton,
Utilization-Focused Evaluation,
mqpatton@prodigy.net
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Privileged Authority and Sacred Trust: Ethical and Excellence Imperatives (for Evaluators) in a Globalizing World
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| Hazel L Symonette,
University of Wisconsin, Madison,
hsymonette@odos.wisc.edu
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Evaluative judgments are inextricably bound up with culture and context. Excellence and ethical practice in evaluation are intertwined with orientations toward, responsiveness to, and capacities for engaging diversity. Breathing life into this expectation calls for critical ongoing personal homework regarding our lenses, filters and frames vis-a-vis our judgment-making. This presentation spotlights the reality that, from our privileged standpoints, we evaluators often look but still do not see, listen but do not hear, touch but do not feel. Such limitations often handicap our truth-discerning and judging capacities in ways that may inadvertently “do violence” to others’ truths. As privileged authorities serving the greater good, we evaluators have a professional and ethical responsibility to proactively address the ways our lenses, filters and frames may obscure or distort more than they illuminate. That ultimate decision regarding responsiveness, accuracy, and validity is not ours alone to make…
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Evaluation as Knowledge Vector in Traditional Societies: Reflections on Roots of Evaluation in Africa
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| Sulley Gariba,
Institute for Policy Alternatives,
sulleygariba@hotmail.com
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Evaluation is a process of using knowledge to assess the value-added of social programs to peoples’ lives. Conception and practice of Evaluation continues as a central feature of culture for traditional African societies and African people. I explore evaluation theory and practice in relation to traditional and contemporary practices in African societies.
Knowledge and knowledge vectors represent critical dimensions influencing social and economic undertakings. Generating historical and contemporary information (through ancestries or analysis of empirical facts) legitimizes predictive capacity of knowledge vectors. Central to traditional practice of evaluation are values and mode of valuation of elements influencing livelihood initiatives. Careful balancing between wealth and well-being shapes value-addition as traditional African societies evolve modes of production and distribution. Deep-rooted knowledge vectors influence evaluation use to shape thought and livelihood, at micro and macro-levels. Finally, I explore how Africa can use traditional forms of evaluative capacity to provide deep knowledge about impacts of changes.
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