Professional Evaluation in the Public Interest(s)

Abstract

Efforts to promote professionalism in evaluation, whether through certification, credentialing, or other path, are not new, but there is a new push to adopt sets of essential evaluator competencies, both in the United States and globally, that are intended to advance professionalism of the field. This emphasis on professionalism is relevant to the American Journal of Evaluation Section on Professional Values and Ethics in that this section focuses on how values are to influence evaluation practice and on how our understanding of valuing affects our view of the ethics that should guide evaluators. In his invited contribution to this issue’s section, Tom Schwandt provides an account of professionalism based on a view of evaluators serving a moral purpose in serving society. This account, a democratic professionalism in which citizens are engaged as co-owners of evaluation, emphasizes a professional ethos of evaluation that complements the focus of those working to advance the more technical aspects of professionalism. To introduce Schwandt’s essay, we review some of the recognized promises and challenges for professionalism in evaluation and highlight the promise of Schwandt’s approach for managing the tension in professions between serving professionals and serving society.