Faculty of Education - Theses

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God loveth adverbs (and careth not how good but how well): an attempt to reconcile some of the dichotomies inherent in the evaluator's use of the values criteria

Evans, Teresa ( 1997)

While 'values�free' evaluation is no longer an acceptable model, many fears, prejudices and confusions remain. These include the fear of imposing values on individuals in society, the confusion arising from a seeming plethora of values, and the place values ought to occupy in a good evaluation model. A number of dichotomies and dualities arise from these discussions and in an attempt to resolve these I have formulated a model where values are the central concern of the evaluator. To reach this conclusion I have used a logic that I argue is appropriate to the field of study. Using this logic, I have defined and described values as 'guiding principles' and argued that it is not only possible to identify certain foundational values in a society, but that shared values are one identifying characteristic of a society. I further discuss 'superstructure values', that is those values that are justified by the foundational values, as an explanation of the apparent diversity of values in society. Having identified some foundational values of a modern, Western democracy, I apply these to program evaluation theory and construct a diagrammatic representation of the relationship between certain key elements. Finally, this theory is applied to two real public programs, Jobskills and Workfare.