Date of Award
12-2020
Degree Type
Practitioner Report
Degree Name
Master of Arts in International Development and Social Change (IDSC)
Department
International Development, Community and Environment
Chief Instructor
David Bell
Second Reader
Jude Fernando
Keywords
Voice, Power, Politics, Social program, Evaluation, Decolonizing evaluation
Abstract
Voice, power, organizational politics, and evaluators’ worldview are in constant flux in social program evaluation. Every social program rolls out based on assumptions on a theory of change (TOC) while every evaluation is also guided by request for evaluation proposal (RFP) operationalized through an evaluation scope of work (SOW). The TOC and evaluation RFPs are likely to carry strong undercurrents of power and politics likely to limit the choice of evaluation methods, tools, and processes due to the prescriptive and compliance-inducing tone. Social program evaluator is in constant dilemma of negotiating rigor amidst pressure of compliance and evaluator subjective worldviews. The questions of what is evaluated, who is interviewed and who wields the power to allow or deny voice in evaluation reports is an iterative of power interplay process. This paper problematizes the tacit mutation of organizational power and politics in social program evaluation as it narrows and lockout evaluator choices. Through the lens of goal-free and goal-based evaluation methods, we contemplate a decolonizing of social program evaluation.
Recommended Citation
Dicko, Buba, "Evaluating between the lines: Problematizing voice, power, and politics in goal based and goal free evaluation methods" (2020). International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE). 245.
https://commons.clarku.edu/idce_masters_papers/245