Evaluation Lives

During an interview with a philosophy professor at BYU, he made the point that all evaluations by humans have elements of or are clearly filled with moral accountability issues. This theme resounded with my own feelings about my evaluations.  These quotes illustrate- I think it's very difficult to think of an issue of accountability that doesn't quickly become a moral issue. I need to add some more over time.

These excerpts from this interview with Russ Osguthorpe point out the view of evaluation as "finding out what is really going on" or the truth. Many evaluators I've interviewed see evaluation as a search for truth so they can then make decisions about actions they need to take or encourage clients to take that will deal with that truth authentically. R: I’ve told you this before, but in the mission field, your particular phrase or word or something was to find out what's really going on. Evaluators find out what's really going on. Not what people say is going on, but what's really happening and why it's happening. Those words in the mission field were invaluable to me, actually. And I told people quite regularly. And I actually tried to train my zone leaders and assistants. I said, I want you to find out what's really happening and why—what is motivating some of this behavior that is not productive or that is damaging to the mission. What's cau...

Religious Freedom and Agency My son, Ryan, is a chaplain in the US Navy. He is also one of the professionals who are not professional evaluators I interviewed. I've shared , with his and his wife's permission, several interviews we had together about his views on evaluation and agency as a chaplain, as an Air Force band trombonist, and as a father, along with interviews I've done with his wife Nicki. Today he sent an email about religious freedom and I have posted below a couple of relevant links that summarize some of his and my assumptions and beliefs that guide our evaluation lives and the evaluation lives of many people I've interviewed. I think these assumptions are actually at the heart of most evaluators' belief systems whether or not they have articulated such or even thought about it explicitly. Probably, even if they are atheists and don't believe God gave them their freedom to use their agency to declare themselves such, I believe these are fundam...