Abstract
Welcome to a new Volume (45!) and a new editorial team! We are thrilled to introduce you—our dear AJE readers—to the first issue of AJE's Volume 45, which is our first together as the journal's Co-Editors-in-Chief. We come together to co-lead our journal, humbled by the shoes we have to fill, honored the responsibility of the effort, and hoping to add value. Over our many years in the field, we, as consumers and authors, have looked to AJE as a primary source for evaluation scholarship. We aim to continue to advance AJE as a premier peer-reviewed publication of high-quality scholarly and practitioner-relevant research on the theory, methods, and practice of evaluation.
The issue contains six articles, a method note, two book reviews, and an In Memoriam Section. After sharing briefly what we hope readers will glean from this issue's content, this editorial note will share an update more broadly on the journal, its editorial team, and our future plans and hopes.
The first two articles demand that we reflect on our own identities as evaluation scholars and practitioners. First, in Findings from an Empirical Investigation of Evaluators’ Values, John LaVelle, Clayton Stephenson, Scott Donaldson, and Justin Hackett examine multiple dimensions of individuals’ work and political values and identity traits, and how these align with evaluation practice. Second, in Gatekeeping's Influence on Equitable Evaluation Practice, Travis Moore, Luke Carmichael Valmadrid, Robyn Baragwanath, Nathaniel Haack, and Lori Bakken consider the influences of evaluation practice as well, here exploring the role of “gatekeepers.” Gatekeepers are those who control access and therefore have the potential to limit or support engagement of diverse interested parties in the process of evaluation and the extent to which it is inclusive and equitable.
The next three articles share a common thread in that they tackle dimensions of inclusive and equitable practice as well—from feminist, decolonialist, and youth empowerment perspectives. Kaisha Crupi and Naomi Joy Godden—in Feminist Evaluation using Feminist Participatory Action Research: Guiding Principles and Practices—align the FPAR framework for enabling “community-driven, -led, and -owned feminist evaluations that drive social justice actions.” Next, Decolonizing Community Development Evaluation in Rakhine State, Myanmar by Leanne M. Kelly and Phyo Pyae Thida (aka Sophia) Htwe helps to demystify decolonializing processes and practices, making them transparent both in definition as well as through their practical application. In Evaluating Youth Empowerment: the Construction and Validation of an Inventory of Dimensions and Indicators, Anna Planas-Lladó and Xavier Úcar offer concrete examples for measuring empowerment. Indeed, most social science researchers tend to feel strongly that measurement is at the core of our ability to know anything; and so concrete advice regarding the measurement of a construct such as “empowerment” including individual aspects of sociopolitical control in terms of source, nature, and the instruments of social power; interactional aspects; and behavioral aspects. In addition to being strongly grounded in theory, these three articles are practical and instructive, holding the potential to improve the evaluation practice of those able to integrate the lessons into their work.
The final main article in this issue is The Mechanistic Rewards of Data and Theory Integration for Theory Based Evaluation by Corrado Matta, Jannika Lindvall, and Adreas Ryve. In it, the authors explore how program theory can offer a counterfactual perspective, from which better evaluation can occur.
Beyond these articles, this issue includes a Method Note titled Anthropology in Evaluation: Free-Listing to Generate Cultural Models. In it, co-authors Caitlyn Placek, Eric Budzielek, Lillian White, and Deanna Williams introduce us to the method of “free-listing,” which they explain is a “quick, semi-quantitative methodology commonly used by anthropologists to uncover information within a cultural domain…[and] can be used for formative, process, outcome, and impact stages of program evaluation.” This Method Note may motivate scholars and practitioners to consider free-listing where fitting in their work.
AJE publishes book reviews as a way of helping our readers decide what deeper dives they should undertake. This issue's Book Review Section includes a review of Kristin Rohanna's Leading Change Through Evaluation: Improvement Science in Action (2021; SAGE) by Valerie Marshall (Michigan State University); and Thomas Schwandt and Emily Gates’ Evaluating and Valuing in Social Research (2021; Guilford) by Melvin Hall (Northern Arizona University).
The final section in this issue is an In Memoriam Section, in which two leaders of our field—Rodney Hopson and Mel Mark—reflect on the lives of two other great contributors—Stafford Hood and Blaine Worthen—who have recently passed.
In closing, we share that—while we draw on AJE's history and remain committed to the journal's quality—we are excited about evolving the journal in its future. As we take on the privilege and responsibility of leading the journal, we have made our first priority establishing an editorial team and refreshing our collective vision for the journal and for its sections. We encourage our readers to visit AJE's website (https://journals.sagepub.com/description/AJE) to review the newly refreshed team and section descriptions and to consider the implications for your work and future contributions.
