Evaluation in Today’s World
Respecting Diversity, Improving Quality, and Promoting Usability
- Veronica G. Thomas - Howard University, USA
- Patricia B. Campbell - Campbell-Kibler Associates, Inc.
Recipient of a 2021 Most Promising New Textbook Award from the Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAA)
Evaluation in Today’s World: Respecting Diversity, Improving Quality, and Promoting Usability is a timely and comprehensive textbook that guides students, practitioners, and users of evaluations in understanding evaluation purposes, theories, methodologies, and challenges within today’s sociocultural and political context. Veronica G. Thomas and Patricia B. Campbell include discussions of evaluation history, frameworks, models, types, planning, and methods, through a social justice, diversity, and inclusive lens. The authors focus on ethics in diverse cultural contexts, help readers understand how social problems and programs get politicized and, sometimes, framed through a racialized lens, show how to engage stakeholders in the evaluation process, and communicate results in culturally appropriate ways.
Included with this title:
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Evaluation in Today’s World: Respecting Diversity, Improving Quality, and Promoting Usability by Veronica Thomas and Patricia Campbell stands as a powerful resource for evaluation instructors, practitioners, students, and scholars who desire to understand why and how to conduct socially just and culturally responsive evaluation, and who are looking for an accessible entry point into the discipline as a whole.
Thomas and Campbell present a remarkable and extremely relevant text, responsive to the issues that evaluators are facing right now.... It is the infusion of culturally responsive and socially just practices into each topic that really shines in Thomas and Campbell’s work. For those interested in crafting a useful evaluation with a culturally responsive lens, whether new or experienced in evaluation, this is a must-have in the library. While this book is an obvious choice for a course focused on culturally responsive evaluation, it should not be overlooked for introductory evaluation courses, as the focus on inclusivity of voices and detailed guidance on evaluation structure would serve to inculcate new evaluators into culturally responsive practice while supporting foundational evaluation knowledge.
“Very rarely are issues related to race, class and power discussed so eloquently and effectively within an evaluation text.”
“Evaluation in Today’s World is a much needed, useful and relevant text, which bridges the evaluation process and methods with our cultural, historical and political climate. It integrates diverse activities, methods and applications that will help prepare students to become successful future practitioners and evaluators.”
“Thomas and Campbell have taken topics that are often only alluded to in program evaluation texts, and brought them to the forefront, highlighting the importance of understanding the diversity of society when developing effective evaluations.”
“Evaluation in Today’s World covers the salient features of research and evaluation in clear language and includes the often overlooked impact of cultural awareness and understanding throughout the research process. In an increasingly multicultural and complex society, the authors have created a resource to help budding researchers evaluate their goals, needs, and biases as they enter this fascinating field.”
“This is the most comprehensive text on evaluation that I have seen. The section on ethics challenges students to reflect on their own beliefs and values, and how those might cause bias in evaluation.”
“This text provides a strong voice to support the inclusion of social justice issues in evaluation planning, implementation, analysis, and reporting.”
a great perspective on diversity
Sample Materials & Chapters
Chapter 1: Evaluations of Future
Chapter 2: Evaluation Ethics and Quality Standards