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Session Title: Youth Participatory Evaluation: Moving From Positivism to Positive Youth Development
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Panel Session 407 to be held in Wekiwa 5 on Thursday, Nov 12, 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM
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Sponsored by the Collaborative, Participatory & Empowerment Evaluation TIG
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| Chair(s): |
| Kim Sabo Flores, Kim Sabo Consulting, kimsabo@aol.com
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| Abstract:
Can Youth Participatory Evaluation move the dialogue in evaluation from positivism to positive youth development? This panel will feature presenters who have been actively strengthening the field of youth participatory evaluation over the last decade. The presenting panelists will draw on their research and their practices to discuss how they have integrated both human development and positive youth development theories into their work, and in doing so changed the nature of traditionally positivistic evaluation. In particular, the panel will discuss how the work of Lev Vygotsky and other constructivists have allowed them to step outside the dualistic paradigm of transformative versus positivistic evaluation.
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Youth Participation: A Positive Move
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| Robert Shumer, University of Minnesota, drrdsminn@msn.com
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Studies of youth programs have for too long avoided their inclusion in the evaluation process. It seems that evaluators are not interested in youth development as one of the outcomes of youth studies. In this presentation we discuss the role of youth in the evaluation process, one that requires their becoming active, critical citizens.
From Piaget, to Bruner, and many others youth grow through an interactive process with their environment. Growth and develop are a function of how adults engage them in the developmental process. While some choose to see youth as empty vessels to be filled by the wisdom and knowledge of adults, others view them as growing human beings, whose development is predicated on their ability to interact as capable individuals who have something to contribute to their own development. Participation in studies of their world is not an option, it is positively required
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Moving From Positivistic to Positive Youth Development Through Participatory Evaluation
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| Michael A Harnar, Claremont Graduate University, michael.harnar@gmail.com
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To draw a line from positivistic evaluation to positive youth development in evaluation, one would necessarily pass through the constructivist paradigm of Participatory Evaluation (PE). While good evaluation in youth-serving programs should help programs engage in more fruitful positive youth development no matter the evaluation perspective, using the process of evaluation to affect positive youth development is unique to PE's intent. Further, Transformative Participatory Evaluation specifically intends to transform its participants.
Individual transformation is also a fundamental construct of Vygotsky's social construction of the mind where social interaction is a necessary catalyst for individual development. Youth Participatory Evaluation intentionally engages youth in the evaluation so that learning and development are enhanced by their interactions. This moves evaluation away from a positivistic perspective where evaluators serve as aloof, separate researchers judging a program's merit and on to more fertile ground where the process itself enhances clients' lives in positive ways.
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Youth Participatory Evaluation: Tool and Result
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| Kim Sabo Flores, Kim Sabo Consulting, kimsabo@aol.com
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This presentation will explore the potential of youth participatory evaluation as a positive youth development practice that simultaneously transforms youth, adults, organizations, and evaluation. The presenter will discuss her research and practice, rooting her analysis of YPE in the work of Lev Vygotsky, specifically examining how he and others have utilized the notion of Zones of Proximal Development as a key method and practice that stimulates the development of both individuals and totalities. The goal of the presentation is to ignite a discussion about the relationship between YPE and positive human and youth development.
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