This article presents a new tool called Critical Evaluation Capital (CEC) designed to address issues of equity and social justice in program evaluation. CEC is grounded in the tenants of critical race theory and inspired by Yosso's work on community cultural wealth which raises critical issues of positionality and access. CEC is a system for…

Social justice--oriented evaluation approaches are described as participatory, culturally and contextually responsive, and self-empowering. These evaluation approaches call for the genuine participation of stakeholders for sound evaluations, particularly those outside of decision-making and service providing. Similarly, hip-hop is commonly…

HIV continues to significantly impact the health of communities, particularly affecting racially and ethnically diverse men who have sex with men and transgender women. In response, health departments often fund a number of community organizations to provide each of these subgroups with comprehensive and culturally responsive services. To this…

In this Exemplars case, the fifth and final under the direction of the current coeditors, the authors present a reflective account of an ongoing, complex, multiyear, multinational monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system conducted for African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD), an international development program. The…

In this study, the merit of using deliberative democratic evaluations is studied in light of ten questions asked by House and Howe, which defined the approach and raise issues of interests, representation, and choice of stakeholders, power balances and procedures for controlling them, participation, reflection and deliberation. Suggestions by…

In this article I reflect on a recent development currently shaping programme evaluation as field, which makes the case for evaluators facilitating evaluation training evaluees to self-evaluate and improve the programmes they teach. Fetterman argues persuasively that the practice was incipient in the field and required formalization and acceptance…

This article introduces a waka tino whakarawea model for evaluating programmes and services for Maori learners. It is based on a set of underlying principles identified in the author's PhD study (Bevan-Brown, 2002). Explanations are provided for eight principles: kaupapa Maori; importance, relevance and beneficence; participation; empowerment,…

As with many forms of evaluation, empowerment evaluation can be viewed as an ideology that promotes a particular set of social and professional values. Judging the quality and utility of empowerment evaluation thus requires a critical appraisal of the implications of adopting those values.

All evaluators face the challenge of striving to adhere to the highest possible standards of ethical conduct. Translating the AEA's Guiding Principles and the Joint Committee's Program Evaluation Standards into everyday practice, however, can be a complex, uncertain, and frustrating endeavor. Moreover, acting in an ethical fashion can require…

Examines the theoretical foundations of the belief that stakeholder involvement empowers the stakeholders and increases evaluation utilization and the validity of the evaluation. Discusses conditions under which these benefits are realized and situations in which they are not. (SLD)

The development of European Community administrative authority has greatly influenced the development of an evaluation culture among the southern and central member states of the European Union. The present case study from Spain provides an example of this diffusion through the use of an empowerment evaluation approach to build evaluation capacity…

Identifies key factors that should be considered by those engaged in the evaluation of overseas development projects to ensure that the evaluation process leads to the empowerment of local stakeholders. A literature review resulted in the development of seven guidelines for evaluation of overseas development projects. (SLD)

Empowerment evaluation involves a program's stakeholders in designing and implementing an evaluation of their own program, thus contributing to the program's improvement and self-determination (Fetterman, 1994, 1996). It appeared to be an appropriate approach for evaluating a mental health drop-in center, which had congruent goals of collaboration…

Presents definitions and purposes of delegation, accountability, and empowerment as parts of a system aimed at high performance. It explores how advanced program evaluation methods can make delegation and accountability more effective and empowerment less risky. (SLD)

Reflects on empowerment evaluation, the use of evaluation to foster improvement and self-determination. Empowerment evaluation uses quantitative and qualitative methods, and usually focuses on program evaluation. Discusses the growth in empowerment evaluation as a result of interest in participatory evaluation. (SLD)