Blest Be the Tie That Binds

Abstract

This chapter explores the relationship between program evaluation and social change through the lens of key historical periods in the development of the field. Also profiled is the relationship between the practice of program evaluation by evaluators, and the communities or contexts in which the evaluand is situated. And finally, the chapter explores the strong bonds that support group consciousness and a desire for change. “Oppositional Consciousness,” a sociological construct, serves as a heuristic that may be useful for program evaluators seeking to promote, support, or inspire social change.

A learning agenda for the advocacy evaluation field's future

“…The recent New Directions for Evaluation edition on Evaluation Issues Facing Communities of Color Today: The Role of Evaluation to Incite Change aligns with this approach. Chapter authors describe how evaluators can play a role in promoting, supporting, and inspiring social change and, where advocacy and movements are involved, how evaluators can inspire oppositional consciousness, or “a community's active motivation and push to confront an oppressive social structure” (Hall, 2020, p. 20). Also aligned with this idea, Nicole Robinson in Chapter 8 calls for us to “ensure our practice provides a clear articulation of social justice in and through evaluation” by using approaches and methods that are responsive to the 10 global forces that are present in our current political context.…”

Evaluation Warriorship: Raising Shields to Redress the Influence of Capitalism on Program Evaluation

“…Inc., links the practice of evaluation learning, reflection, and storytelling to the evaluator's social responsibility as a warrior for justice (Robinson and Habibi 2020). Sharing roots with culturally responsive evaluation (Hall 2020), which leverages knowledge for liberation, evaluation warriorship symbolizes the evaluator's role in disrupting systems of oppression in order to replace them with systemic social justice and love. The ¡Milwaukee Evaluation!…”

“…The field of program evaluation is undergoing a transformation, one that is inextricably linked to healing and resistance. For over a decade, program evaluators engaging in critical, transformative, decolonizing, feminist, and culturally responsive evaluation (Hall 2020;Sielbeck-Bowen et al 2002;Smith 2012;Symonette et al 2020) have gained prominence, elevating multiple, shared, and regenerative threads centered on our collective responsibility toward liberation and social justice for all. It is what Neubauer and Hall (2020) refer to as the "activist, and critical-action orientation to evaluation" (p. 130).…”

“…Specialized institutions (e.g., the Culturally Responsive Evaluation Assessment/CREA), emerging evaluator pipelines (e.g., Graduate Education Diversity Internship/GEDI), theories, written accords (e.g., evaluator competency statements, textbooks), and convenings help to codify this transformation in the field; most notably among the culture, dominant ideation, and legacy of evaluators of color (Symonette et al 2020). A main driver of these shifts is the recognition that evaluation has been a complicit to systems of oppression (Hall 2020); meaning, evaluation as it exists in the U.S., and as it is exported around the globe, helps to reproduce extreme poverty, colonialism, environmental oppression, and white supremacy (Hall 2020;Ofir 2018). The ways in which it does this are many and parallel social science research (see Zuberi and Bonilla-Silva 2008 for examples).…”

Tracing the Link Between Transformative Education and Social Action Through Stories of Change

“…Hall (2020) promotes the potential of evaluation theory and practice to support social justice by calling on evaluators to “develop approaches to their work steeped in reflection, communication and power sharing” (p.19). To align with Coady’s transformative education approach, we researched methodologies that share a common ancestry, particularly around participation, empowerment, community development, and storytelling.…”