Abstract
The article aims to re-purpose evaluation to learn about social justice by anchoring evaluation in normative dimensions. This article demonstrates the ways in which evaluation with an establishment orientation can limit the scope for dialogue and neglect narratives that contest the status quo. It explains how a more participatory approach that engages with the standpoints of marginalised participants can enhance the potential to learn about social justice. An ethical commitment to social justice does not mean a rejection of rigour in evidence-based evaluation. Relating Fraser’s critical theory of participatory parity to the regulative ideal of evaluation creates a foundation to systematically foreground explanations about how an intervention has delivered social justice.
Highlights
All evaluation approaches are in some way pedagogical, there is variation in what they teach and convey (Patton, 2017)
Silver: Re-purposing evaluation to learn about social justice pre-determined boundaries and so produces knowledge to support learning within the frames of the status quo
This article has argued that an engagement with normative foundations broadens the potential for evaluation to produce knowledge about social justice
Summary
All evaluation approaches are in some way pedagogical, there is variation in what they teach and convey (Patton, 2017). Evaluation has the potential to produce knowledge to learn about social justice. Reflecting on 40 years of conducting evaluations, Mathison (2018) concludes that evaluation has not fulfilled its potential to contribute to transformative social change. She identifies three reasons for this: first, the practice of evaluation is constrained by dominant ideologies; second, that evaluation is not independent and has become a service provided to those with power; and third, that evaluation is a practice that follows. Silver: Re-purposing evaluation to learn about social justice pre-determined boundaries and so produces knowledge to support learning within the frames of the status quo
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