Category: Evaluation as a Discipline and a Profession

A friend of mind and I were discussing the nature of AEA. I have come to quite a few conclusions about this, but my current thinking is more in the way of questions than answers. As I see it, what’s needed is an exploration of four questions. Where does the evaluation that we do fit … Continue reading Four facets of AEA. Four questions. No answers provided.

AEA’s Potential to Serve the Public Good

here are three main aspects to the argument about to be developed. First, there are crucial differences between scientific and technological models of knowledge development. Second, these differences have profound implications for the practical value of research. Third, evaluation is far more of a technological than a scientific pursuit.

Common Introduction to all Three Parts I have been thinking about what will happen to AEA, and to evaluation, in the future. I can conjure scenarios where AEA and evaluation thrive, and I can imagine scenarios where they whither. What I cannot envision is a future in which AEA and evaluation, as we know them … Continue reading Part 1 of a 3 Part Series on how to Make AEA, and Evaluation, Relevant in the Future: What is Diversity?

Common Introduction to all Three Parts I have been thinking about what will happen to AEA, and to evaluation, in the future. I can conjure scenarios where AEA and evaluation thrive, and I can imagine scenarios where they whither. What I cannot envision is a future in which AEA and evaluation, as we know them … Continue reading Part 2 of a 3 Part Series on how to Make AEA, and Evaluation, Relevant in the Future: AEA as an Evolving Organism

Common Introduction to all Three Parts I have been thinking about what will happen to AEA, and to evaluation, in the future. I can conjure scenarios where AEA and evaluation thrive, and I can imagine scenarios where they whither. What I cannot envision is a future in which AEA and evaluation, as we know them … Continue reading Part 3 of a 3 Part Series on how to Make AEA, and Evaluation, Relevant in the Future: Evolution, Diversity and Change from the Middle

Evaluation cannot serve the social good without a wider range of ideological points of view informing its theory and practice.

This post is an update to a post I did some time ago. I am adding to  it based on some conversations I recently had at the annual meeting of the Canadian Evaluation Society. The topic I’m dealing with is the development of “Evaluation” through the lens of evolutionary biology. There are two related issues: … Continue reading Using an evolutionary biology view to connect the intellectual development of evaluation and the development of the evaluation community

We have been musing about whether evaluation as practiced by the members of AEA is framed within too narrow range of political and social ideologies.