Evaluation as a Democratic Process: Promoting Inclusion, Dialogue, and Deliberation

Download or read book Evaluation as a Democratic Process: Promoting Inclusion, Dialogue, and Deliberation written by Katherine E. Ryan and published by Jossey-Bass. This book was released on 2000-04-26 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inclusive approaches to evaluation emphasizing participation andcollaboration can enhance the efficiency of data collection,improvelearning, and strengthen commitment to act on results andalso reflect the highest aspirations and ideals of a democraticsociety. The contributors to this volume use case studies todiscover the lessons learned so far from successful andunsuccessful attempts to democratize evaluation. They offer tenquestions to guide evaluation planning from a deliberative,democratic viewpoint, and look at a failed attempt at inclusiveevaluation to analyze how deliberative intentions can be distorted.Focusing on participation, they discuss how best to use differenttypes of dialogue to make evaluation more participatory, examine anevaluation program in a psychiatric institution to explore thechallenge of employing participatory, democratic approaches in ananti-democratic environment, and more. This is the 85th issue of the quarterly journal New Directions forEvaluation.