Evaluation case study Week at Power to Persuade

This week is all about practical case studies in evaluation. In particular, this week is all about how I do on-the-ground evaluations with programs.

A while ago I wrote an article about the 'policy whirlpool' . This article was based on participant musings from the 2014 Power to Persuade symposium. The policy whirlpool model described four key areas that had to be seamlessly integrated in order to develop good policy that creates change. We have to make sure that our values and our knowledge are integrated, we have to communicate our values and knowledge to others, and we have to have good relationships to make this communication effective.

The three case studies I am posting this week show how evaluators have to mediate values, knowledge, communication and relationships to make evaluation work.

Continue reading to see how the case studies align with the policy whirlpool model.

Case study one (posted today), Using developmental evaluation to build data collection frameworks, describes how I developed relationships with the program team and used these relationships to construct knowledge that assisted with the development of data collection frameworks. This case study is being posted today.

Later in the week I will post two more case studies.

Case study two, Using outcomes to design an Indigenous youth program, describes how I built relationships with the program staff, ensured that our knowledge and values were integrated, and used this to develop a program model that the team could use to communicate their programs goals.

Case study three, Using digital storytelling to include youth voices in evaluation, describes how we worked to ensure that youth knowledge and values were represented in evaluation reporting in order to strengthen communication of the evaluation findings.

This week is a little bit of a change of pace from the standard policy debates that are featured on the blog. Nevertheless, I do think the case studies bring an interesting angle to the social policy debates and I do hope you enjoy reading them.

As always, if you have any questions, I am always happy to have a chat!

lauren@stringtheory.net.au

@itstringtheory