It takes an ecosystem: Socioecological factors influencing equity-oriented evaluation in New England, U.S., 2021

Abstract

Evaluation must transform to center equity. Yet, while recent scholarship critiques evaluation at the macro level for reproducing societal inequities and calls the profession and individual evaluators to change, this research overlooks evaluation ecosystems – though dynamic interactions among evaluation teams, workplaces, community stakeholders, funders, and informal professional networks form crucial connections between the macro and micro levels and can be spaces for promoting equity within and through evaluations. Addressing this gap, this exploratory study proposes and uses an adapted socioecological framework to organize thematic analysis of data from interviews with evaluators in New England (n = 21) about factors that help and hinder equity-oriented evaluation practices. We identify nine domains and twenty-three factors across macro, meso, and micro levels that influence these evaluators’ capacity to practice equity-oriented evaluation in regional, national, and international contexts. The study contributes a framework that future research can adapt to explore the relevance of identified domains and factors to other geographical settings. We also provide questions to guide evaluators, program leaders, and others in reflecting on leverage points for change within their own contexts and outline future directions for research on equity and evaluation.