Values in Evaluation and Social Research

Values in Evaluation is a breakthrough book that will change the way evaluators think about the relationship between facts and values. Using the tools of philosophy and insights from evaluation practice the authors attack the inconsistencies in current thinking about the interplay of facts and values and give us an outline for reconstructing the approach to values within evaluation.--Gary T. Henry Georgia State University This book as the title promises unfurls the concept of value in the practice of program evaluation. The editors go well beyond recognizing that all data gathering and description are value laden and that all evaluators have value commitments shaping their designs. They examine the ethical and political burdens accompanying any evaluation contract. Out of an extended collaboration Kenneth R. Howe and Ernest R. House together redirect their advocacy toward the pursuit of democracy.--Robert E. Stake University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignThe authors use the tools of philosophy and the insights from evaluation practice to cut through current confusion about values and the interplay of facts and values. Four views of facts and values in evaluation are analyzed: those rooted in a fact-value dichotomy and those of radical constructivists postmodernists and deliberative democrats. The arguments are tough the prose concise and the insights compelling.