Program evaluation as community-engaged research: Challenges and solutions

Abstract

This article reflects on the challenges and opportunities that have arisen in the course of evaluative research into the impact of a number of schools’ engagement programs at Macquarie University, Sydney. It maps out how the research has been conceived and then operationalised as an engaged model of research that includes consultations and collaborations at multiple stages of the research, from conception to dissemination. The article then considers a number of the challenges that have arisen and, in the context of current understanding of best practice in community-engaged research, discusses some of the strategies that were deployed in response to these challenges. By critically examining the limitations of these responses, the article ultimately reinforces the argument that the complexities of engaged research mean that the perfectly engaged research project remains, in most cases, an impossible myth. Instead, community-engaged research should be seen as an approach to research, or an attitude to embed into practice, which ultimately requires embracing a ‘can always do better’ approach to conducting research and a commitment to collaboration and democratic practice that goes beyond the immediate context of the research project.Keywords: Evaluative research, evaluation, community-engaged research, collaboration

Emancipatory approaches in couples' intervention research

“…• Researcher should engage participants in all aspects of the research project including identification of the primary problem being addressed, development of research questions and hypotheses, methodology and implementation, and engaged in analyses and synthesis of data including identification of implications for future research and limitations (Fraenkel, 2006(Fraenkel, , 2020Reed, 2015;Singh, 2010).…”

“…Baker et al added:

The research focuses on how particular characteristics, such as color, class or religion, are associated or correlated with particular outcomes, such as occupational status, education or legal provision. There is therefore a tendency to locate the causative factors contributing to particular inequalities in the attributes of disadvantaged people, in their gender, poverty or ‘race’, rather than in the structured relations, the planned and unplanned exclusionary systems, that transform individual attributes into inequalities (p. 171).

Thus, all researchers, particularly White scholars, studying URM‐HM populations should critically reflect on the privileges they possess; their lived experience compared to the lived experience of the population of their research; and the power differences that exist between the researcher and participant (Fraenkel, 2020; Hoffman‐Cooper, 2021; Reed, 2015). Critical whiteness theory postulates that those who benefit from White privilege do not see how they benefit because White privilege is natural and normal thus blocking the ability to see how racism, prejudice, inequity, and injustice operate within their spaces (Delgado & Stefancic, 2013; Staiger, 2004).…”

“…• Researcher should examine their own power and privilege along with the power dynamic that exists in the research relationship and process (Behar-Horenstein & Feng, 2015;Reed, 2015).…”

“…Thus, all researchers, particularly White scholars, studying URM-HM populations should critically reflect on the privileges they possess; their lived experience compared to the lived experience of the population of their research; and the power differences that exist between the researcher and participant (Fraenkel, 2020;Hoffman-Cooper, 2021;Reed, 2015). Critical whiteness theory postulates that those who benefit from White privilege do not see how they benefit because White privilege is natural and normal thus blocking the ability to see how racism, prejudice, inequity, and injustice operate within their spaces (Delgado & Stefancic, 2013;Staiger, 2004).…”

Using Theory of Change to evaluate the role of stakeholder engagement towards socially desirable outcomes in ICT research projects

“…Although extensive research has been carried out on the evaluation of stakeholder engagement in many contexts of research projects including those involved with ICT [49]- [51], no single study exists which specifically looks at the evaluation of stakeholder engagement through the lens of RRI. The RRI lens is informed by different accounts of RRI [17], [18], [20] and provide a starting point for incorporating RRI into evaluation.…”