| Session Title: The Historical Context of Evaluation: The Forgotten Post-war Years |
| Multipaper Session 632 to be held in Sebastian Section I4 on Friday, Nov 13, 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM |
| Sponsored by the Research on Evaluation TIG |
| Chair(s): |
| John Gargani, Gargani + Company, john@gcoinc.com |
| Abstract: In this presentation, we set out to broaden our understanding of the historical context for evaluation by presenting new scholarship related to the field's development in the years following World War II. From a US perspective, this was a period of rapidly expanding research institutions and enormous international aid efforts, both of which accelerated the growth of the field. From an international perspective, it was an unprecedented period of exchange as social scientists began crossing disciplinary and national boundaries in large numbers. However, mounting fears of communism, internationalism, and radicalism tempered that exchange and forced many evaluators to pay a heavy price for their pioneering work. In this presentation we will provide an overview of the period, introduce a transnational framework for analyzing the historical development of evaluation, and offer three historical case studies of pioneering evaluators in the post-war years. |
| Evaluation Theories, Evaluation History, and Theories of Evaluation History |
| Christina Christie, Claremont Graduate University, tina.christie@cgu.edu |
| Much of the work related to the history evaluation has been undertaken to shed light on the development of evaluation theories. This work has natural boundaries, namely individuals, institutions, and disciplines, that provide a context for investigation and analysis. In considering the development of evaluation as a field, however, do we benefit from expanding that context? In this presentation I will consider what might be called the "traditional" view of post-war evaluation, describe a competing "transnational" perspective for historical research, and critique both. My purpose is to raise questions about how we collectively arrive at an understanding of our field and offer suggestions on how we can enrich that understanding. |
| J. Thomas Hastings (1911-1992): Consequential Validity Before its Time |
| Gabriel Della-Piana, University of Utah, dellapiana@aol.com |
| Connie Kubo Della-Piana, National Science Foundation, cdellapi@nsf.gov |
| We present a historical case study of J. Thomas Hastings, whose work in the 1950s presaged later debates by evaluation theorists on topics such as theory-based evaluation and consequential validity. An analysis of interviews, presentations, publications, and other documents is used to shed light on the contexts around which these ideas emerged, were taught, and more broadly disseminated. These contexts include courses, disciplinary professional organizations, the measurement community, and collegial individual and group dialogue. His personal manner and his professional perspectives were intrinsically linked, and through a variety of means became embedded in his students, the Center for Instructional Research and Curriculum Evaluation (CIRCE) that he helped found, and the field as a whole. |
| Jack Elinson, Laszlo Radvanyi, and the FBI |
| John Gargani, Gargani + Company, john@gcoinc.com |
| Historical case studies of Jack Elinson and Laszlo Radvanyi, pioneers of evaluation who are little known to our field, are presented as windows into the post-war development of evaluation and the ways in which the state sought to control it through coercive means. Elinson, a major figure in the field of medical sociology, partnered with Edward Suchman in groundbreaking research and teaching that led to the latter's seminal text Evaluative Research. Radvanyi founded the first national survey research center in Mexico and conducted one of the earliest evaluations of a UNESCO funded aid project. The way in which these two men crossed paths by crossing disciplinary and national boundaries was indicative of the field at that time. It was also considered suspicious by colleagues, journalists, and governments, which led to FBI surveillance of both men and a heavy price paid in their professional and personal lives. |