Hi! I’m Valerie Marshall, an evaluator and doctoral student of evaluation at Western Michigan University. Today, I would like to present some findings from a study about values and valuing in evaluation to encourage you to reflect on how they show up in your practice.
Values and valuing are central to what we “do” as evaluators, and our work with them is a key differentiator from other fields. Whether we are discussing with an organization what they hope to accomplish and why or what evaluation criteria to use, values show up in everything we do. However, despite the importance of values and valuing in evaluation, research in this area remains limited.
As part of the study I conducted in 2023, 311 individuals who had completed at least one educational opportunity in evaluation in the USA (e.g., class, workshop) participated in an online survey examining attitudes and knowledge of values and valuing in evaluation. Respondents were well educated, with over 80% holding a master’s or doctoral degree, and most (71%) identified as former/current practicing evaluators. Below are some key survey findings.
Most respondents agreed that values and valuing are important concepts in the field.
- 87% of respondents said that it was extremely important/important for evaluators to learn about how to identify and work with values, and
- 86% of respondents said that it was extremely important/important for evaluators to learn about valuing or making value judgments.
Respondents’ familiarity with major ethical and value frameworks that guide evaluation practice varied.
- Less than half of respondents (48%) were very familiar/familiar with the Program Evaluation Standards by the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation,
- 70% of respondents were very familiar/familiar with the American Evaluation Association (AEA) Evaluator Competencies, and
- 73% of respondents were very familiar/familiar with the American Evaluation Association (AEA) Guiding Principles for Evaluators.
Practicing evaluators’ (n=231) engagement in the valuing process and discussion of values with clients varied.
- 62% of practicing evaluators always/often engaged in valuing compared to 38% who sometimes/rarely engaged in valuing,
- 48% of practicing evaluators had explicit discussions with clients about their values as an evaluator, and
- 69% of practicing evaluators always/often spoke with organizations and clients about their values.
Lessons Learned
Asking about values and valuing can be tricky because these terms can be easily confused, and evaluators are not always aware of the ways they engage with them. It is worthwhile to consider how these issues could be addressed in future RoE efforts on values and valuing and what methods or tools would be particularly helpful in understanding how they change and guide evaluation practice in different contexts.
Hot Tip
One key survey finding is that while respondents felt that values and valuing concepts were important for evaluators to know, 31% to 52% reported not frequently engaging with them despite being familiar with evaluation ethical guidelines and competencies. One way to bring your own and others’ values to the surface is by drafting a values statement. Use this statement to talk about values with clients or as a reflection tool for your own decisions and actions in your work.
Rad Resources
Consider learning more about values and valuing in the field by reading these books:
- Evaluating and Valuing in Social Research by Thomas Shwandt and Emily Gates
- Evaluation Methodology Basics: The Nuts and Bolts of Sound Evaluation by E. Jane Davidson
- Values in Evaluation and Social Research by Ernest House and Kenneth Howe
- Evaluating: Values, Biases, and Practical Wisdom by Ernest House
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