Empowerment Evaluation and Social Justice - Reading Passages

Empowerment Evaluation and Social Justice

 Reading Passages

I was asked to provide colleagues and friends with a series of readings from my new book.  

I selected six passages I thought people might be interested in and posted them on YouTube - one per week.  

The response was both kind and overwhelming.  Colleagues from as far as South Africa and as close as Massachusetts posted their comments, compliments, and concerns.  I was also asked to make them all available in one spot and therefore have posted them here for your convenience.

Once again many thanks for the overwhelmingly positive response to this innovation - online reading passages from my new book Empowerment Evaluation and Social Justice.

Online Book Readings

1st Reading

This is the first reading of a series of 6 readings of Empowerment Evaluation and Social Justice (Guilford Press) by Dr. David Fetterman. This reading is a passage from the Preface. It highlights why this book is needed. It begins: "We face a worldwide crisis at this time in history. COVID, economic instability, global warming, political polarization, gender inequality, racial inequality, LGBTQ+. discrimination, anti-Asian and antisemitic attacks, and an ever-expanding list of critical concerns require our immediate attention. We can't wait for the government or industry to save us. We must learn to help ourselves and help others help themselves."

See: https://youtu.be/9OHqTNdx4dk

2nd Reading

This is the second reading in a series of 6 readings of Empowerment Evaluation and Social Justice (Guilford Press) by Dr. David Fetterman. This reading is a passage from the Introduction. It highlights how empowerment evaluation is inexorably bound to the pursuit of social justice. It begins: “Empowerment evaluation is grounded in an emancipatory tradition.  It is designed to help people learn to confront the status quo buy questioning assumptions and prescribed roles, unpacking myths, rejecting dehumanization, and no longer blindly accepting the “truth” about how things are or can be.  Empowerment evaluation helps people think critically about the world around them.”

See:  https://youtu.be/AOHmxtVMt7o

3rd Reading

This is the third reading in a series of 6 readings of Empowerment Evaluation and Social Justice (Guilford Press) by Dr. David Fetterman. This reading is another passage from the Introduction. It highlights empowerment evaluation during the turmoil days. It begins: “Where else but in this extended family of evaluators can you expect both an attack and an embrace in the same breath? The American Evaluation Association is a place where evaluators can be vulnerable, open ourselves up for critique, and learn from the experience. The magnitude of the upheaval that followed, however, was unanticipated. The empowerment evaluation approach was met with excitement, applause, and hope. However, it was also met with disdain and fear (and more than a little microaggression). It made many evaluators rethink what evaluation was and what it meant to be an evaluator. Basically, it put the association and our colleagues to the test. Were we giving away or building evaluation capacity to help people conduct their own evaluations? Were we the external experts or coaches and critical friends?”

See:  https://youtu.be/tXALwo1AnAA

4th Reading

This is the fourth reading in a series of 6 readings of Empowerment Evaluation and Social Justice (Guilford Press) by Dr. David Fetterman. This reading is about the positive and supportive role of a critical friend. In this case, the passage highlights the donor’s complimentary email to the team. The donor leader was Kachina Chawla from USAID. The reading is from an email that was addressed by her to the group that I quote in the book. It begins: “I just wanted to say that in preparing for this webinar what I realized is the brilliance of each and every one of you on this team.” The book provides more detail about the “critical” nature of critical friends and how they ground the group in data and data-driven decision-making. 

See:  https://youtu.be/tXALwo1AnAA

5th Reading

This is the fifth reading in a series of 6 readings of Empowerment Evaluation and Social Justice (Guilford Press) by Dr. David Fetterman. Chapter 6 responds to frequently asked questions during classes, webinars, conferences, and projects. One of the questions under the Mind Bending or Counterintuitive section of the chapter was:  What is the secret to empowerment evaluation? Why does it work?

The passage begins with a surprising response to that question:  “Self-interest: either mutual self-interest or common denominators of self-interest.”  The rest of the passage in the book provides additional insight into that provocative but accurate response.

See: https://youtu.be/oYrB089OPv8

6th Reading

This is the sixth reading in a series of 6 readings of Empowerment Evaluation and Social Justice (Guilford Press) by Dr. David Fetterman. 

This passage begins with a clear statement and commitment to social justice.  “Evaluation and social justice can, has, and should continue to go hand in hand.  The time is always right to take a position against the culture of silence that allows injustice and inequities to persist.”  This passage highlights real-world examples of empowerment evaluation applied to social justice issues and programs.

See:  https://youtu.be/rryjkb3PxKk

The book is available on Amazon.