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Session Title: Evaluation in Contested Spaces
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Panel Session 552 to be held in Sebastian Section L2 on Friday, Nov 13, 1:40 PM to 3:10 PM
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Sponsored by the International and Cross-cultural Evaluation TIG
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| Chair(s): |
| Ross VeLure Roholt, University of Minnesota, rossvr@umn.edu
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| Abstract:
International and humanitarian and other aid agencies require evaluation for accountability and program improvement. Increasingly, evaluation has to be undertaken in communities under conditions of violent division. There is practice wisdom about how to conceptualize and implement this work, but it is not easily available, as is social research under such conditions. This panel will offer a public, professional space for describing, clarifying and understanding this work, suggesting practical strategies, tactics and tools. Also, research on evaluation practice under these conditions will be covered. A relevant bibliography will be distributed.
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Conducting Evaluation in Contested Spaces: Describing and Understanding Evaluation Under These Conditions
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| Ross VeLure Roholt, University of Minnesota, rossvr@umn.edu
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Ross VeLure Roholt worked and lived in Belfast, Northern Ireland and in Ramallah and Gaza . During this time, he designed and worked on several evaluation studies for youth programs, youth services, museum exhibitions, and quality assurance in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Ramallah and Gaza, Palestine. His evaluation experience under violence and post-violence conditions will be described and joined to other evaluation studies under similar conditions gathered from practitioners and researchers for a completed special full issue of Evaluation and Program Planning, co-edited by Ross VeLure Roholt and Michael Baizerman. Its focus is describing the challenges and strategies for evaluation work under these conditions, using case studies and analytic essays.
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Crafting High Quality Evaluation in Contested Spaces: Lessons From Practice
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| Barry Cohen, Rainbow Research Inc, bcohen@rainbowresearch.org
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Barry Cohen has been Executive Director of Rainbow Research, Inc. since 1998. He has 35 years of experience in research, evaluation, planning and training in fields such as public health and eliminating health disparities; alcohol, tobacco and other drugs; violence prevention; after-school enrichment; school desegregation; systems advocacy, mentoring, social services, and welfare reform. His case study of evaluating programs in a contested space in the United States provides insights into how evaluation is shaped by local conditions and what evaluators must do to craft high quality evaluations studies under these conditions.
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Analyzing Evaluation Practice From the Perspective of Contested Spaces
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| Michael Baizerman, University of Minnesota, mbaizerm@umn.edu
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Michael Baizerman has over 35 years of local, national, and international evaluation experience. Over the last seven years he has worked with governmental and non-governmental organizations in Northern Ireland, South Africa, Israel, Palestine, and the Balkan region to document and describe youth work in contested spaces and to develop effective evaluation strategies to document, describe, and determine outcomes of this work. Responding to and expanding on the descriptions provided earlier, evaluation practice as typically described in the North and West will be interrogated. It will be shown that the very nature of such spaces makes difficult to impossible the use of normative best practices. We use this finding to suggest practical strategies, tactics, and tools for designing and conducting program evaluation in violent and post-violent contexts.
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