Evaluation Matters—He Take Tō Te Aromatawai 2: 2016

I bet this has happened to you. You are at a dinner party, neighborhood get together, or some other social event, and someone asks you the most dangerous question, “So, what do you do for a living?” If you answer honestly, “I’m an evaluator,” you will spend at least 30 minutes explaining what that means and how it is different from what your new acquaintance thinks it does (not social auditor, not… Read more

This article is drawn from the personal experience of two evaluators working in a post-disaster context. While the evaluators, also the authors of this article, were both experienced in a range of evaluation settings, they found that little in the evaluation literature prepared for them for working in such a physically exhausting and emotionally draining context. The article is set out in three … Read more

Novice evaluators in Aotearoa New Zealand have few resources to assist them with reconciling the complex philosophical, theoretical, and practice tensions inherent in programme evaluation. This article provides guidelines to assist novice evaluators in their journey to become “thoughtful” practitioners balancing methodological credibility with stakeholder empowerment. The approach is informed … Read more

The term developmental evaluation was coined by Michael Quinn Patton in the mid-1990s to describe the role of evaluators in the development of an innovative initiative. Core evaluation skills, such as articulating the initiative’s theory of change, asking evaluative questions, and providing timely information on emerging results, help the initiative to develop through iterative cycles of learning … Read more

This article aims to document and evaluate the effectiveness of Te Ara Hou—The Māori Achievement Collaboratives (MACS). MACS is a nationwide grassroots educational leadership professional development project comprising 63 primary and intermediate school principals. These educational leaders meet at hui and wānanga several times a year to collectively engage with recent research and professional development to support their leadership practice toward … Read more

Developing evaluation capacity with non-government organisations (NGOs) in New Zealand is in vogue, with funders increasingly keen to demonstrate that their investments in social-service programmes are outcomes-focused and providers keen to demonstrate the difference they are making. This article presents a case study of how a large philanthropic trust, focused on family social health and wellbeing, … Read more

Indigenous evaluators, and evaluators who position themselves in the transformative paradigm, share a common interest in positive transformation for those who experience discrimination and oppression. The determination of strategies for exploring how evaluators can contribute to positive transformation is complex territory. In this article we explore the common ground and divergent beliefs of … Read more