Competencies, Self‐awareness, and Practice: Notes on My Reading of Chapters 5–7

Abstract

As part of this NDE issue with its focus on the 2018 American Evaluation Association (AEA) Evaluator Competencies, this chapter discusses the content and delivery of material in Chapters 5 through 7. The reviewed chapters, and therefore this article, address potential uses of the 2018 AEA Evaluator Competencies to promote professional self-knowledge, enhance education and training programs for new and in-service professionals, and facilitate evaluator and evaluation pursuit of social justice. This chapter will assist readers of these chapters by providing a review from the perspective of an experienced evaluation professional. Its critiques and related admonitions to the profession are the sole and independent opinions of the author.

Special Section Editors’ Note: A Focus on the Evaluation Profession

“…In critical reflection mode, he actively challenges and reveals gaps regarding expectations for evaluation, evaluator actions, and the efficacy of the competency statements. Calling out House's analysis of the “increasingly fragmented, distrusting and unequal” American society (2020, p. 26), Hall positions challenges evaluator competencies face related to performance expectations. He adds momentum to the broader questions raised by Schwandt such as “what professionalism means in evaluation and what the profession itself aims to add to society or the social good it seeks to serve” (2017, p. 26).…”

“…AEA's competencies were generated with member and partner engagement that occurred before the global fracturing of the COVID-19 pandemic and a continuing cascade of American fracturing events illuminated by the tragic murder of George Floyd. Hall's resultant critical questions are framed clearly in the post-2018 zeitgeist and “caveat of use” (2020, p. 137). Applying his underlying use of argumentation offers one way to navigate this Special Section.…”

“…Intentionally invited to critique CTF's work published in NDE issue 168, Altschuld (2020) and Hall (2020) identified challenges for future work in generating evidence on the competencies' use and contribution to the professionalization of the evaluation field.…”