| Session Title: The Agent, the Provocateur, the Activist: Creative Evaluators, Surfacing Undercover Values in a Rubric Revolution |
| Multipaper Session 206 to be held in Pacific A on Thursday, Nov 3, 8:00 AM to 9:30 AM |
| Sponsored by the Presidential Strand |
| Chair(s): |
| Jennifer C Greene, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, jcgreene@illinois.edu |
| Discussant(s): |
| Jane Davidson, Real Evaluation, jane@realevaluation.com |
| Abstract: What happens when evaluation practice meets creativity? Sweeping the practice of evaluation in many parts of the world is a rubrics revolution. The application of this evaluation specific methodology in many diverse contexts has been the impetus and vehicle for evaluators to acknowledge, appreciate and use creative approaches to surface undercover or implicit values, often previously hidden or neglected by more traditional evaluation approaches, tools and practice. In this session, presenters will demonstrate some of the ways they have drawn on their own creativity, as well as the creative expressions of their evaluands to manage and moderate the tensions between competing and different values and priorities. This blend of evaluative rubrics and creativity is helping to create evaluation frameworks, rubrics and judgments that are accepted, appreciated and considered legitimate in many diverse contexts. Through a range of creative expression and forms (poetry, music, skit etc.,), this session will seek to demonstrate the power of cultural and creative forms of expression to surface and make visible the values of multiple and diverse perspectives in evaluation contexts. |
| The Agent |
| Kate McKegg, Kinnect Group, kate@kinnect.co.nz |
| Tessie Catsambas, EnCompass LLC, tcatsambas@encompassworld.com |
| The first presentation by Kate McKegg and Tessie Catsambas will focus on the personalized nature of the roles of the evaluator. Using examples of music, art, poetry and pictures, it will explore the notion of evaluators as culturally creative beings, grappling with the messiness of the lived realities of evaluands, juggling the multiple demands of diverse stakeholders - all the while intentionally seeking to play a part in change or transformation. It will illustrate the ways in creativity can situate and position evaluation methodology as a valued practice and legitimate process for change in our communities and evaluands. |
| The Provocateur |
| Kataraina Pipi, FEM Ltd, kpipi@xtra.co.nz |
| Julian King, Kinnect Group, julian@kinnect.co.nz |
| The second presentation by Kataraina Pipi and Julian King will address the notion of the evaluator as an agent of change, precipitating learning, new insight and ways of knowing. It will explore how different creative forms of expression are (i) able to make visible the often undercover values of everyday experience and life in our communities; and (ii) give practical and lived expression to these values in evaluation contexts. It will demonstrate how creative forms of expression are able to reposition evaluation as a worthwhile and legitimate process for evaluands and communities, often previously hostile to evaluation. |
| The Activist |
| Nan Wehipeihana, Kinnect Group, nan@kinnect.co.nz |
| The third presentation by Nan Wehipeihana and Thomaz Chianca will draw from experiences in communities where rubrics, which have been populated with the lived values of these people, have been used to make carefully deliberated and collaborative judgments about the 'goodness' and value of programs and services. It will illustrate how by drawing on the many forms of cultural, historical and contemporary forms of expression, including painting, weaving, song and dance in these communities, the evaluative meanings that are subsequently made can be seen as powerful expressions of shifts in the locus of power, from outside experts to within communities. |