Biopolitical power and paradoxes in evaluation research with transnational migrant youth

Power has always been an element of the program evaluation field, however, it has traditionally been attributed a negative connotation. With that in mind, power is seen as a force possessed to some extent by different stakeholders that can be imposed over others, and by which certain views, ideas, and decisions can be adopted. Given that program evaluation has a political character in which power is always present, we seek to explore a different notion of this concept. In this paper, we intend to take advantage of Michel Foucault's ideas to explore power in the program evaluation field. We illustrate the introduction of these concepts in collaborative evaluations and in doing so, we also explore power as well as power-knowledge relations, adopting a transformative perspective on power. The introduction of these concepts in collaborative evaluation is useful in illustrating how they can be used in non-collaborative evaluations.

Section: Foucault On the Exercise Of Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Evaluation spaces are not neutral, but shaped by power relations that surround and permeate them through time (Chouinard, 2014; Cornwall, 2002; Gaventa, 2006; Hampshire, Hills, & Iqbal, 2005; Rodriguez & Acree, 2020). Evaluation spaces are social areas of interaction where dominion, control, and power are exercised.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Look at Power Issues in Collaborative Program Evaluations Under Michel Foucault´s Conception of Power-Knowledge

Torres‐Cuello

Pinzon-Salcedo

2022

“…This timely article is based off of a 4-year mixed-methods evaluation (2016)(2017)(2018)(2019)(2020) of an after-school and summer program that was created through a public library and a K-12 school district partnership in an urban U.S. city that serves newcomer migrant students. Newcomer migrant youth self-selected to participate in this program, and newcomers were defined as 0-30 months in the United States (Rodriguez, 2019;Rodriguez & Acree, 2020).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…In this article, we are interested in how evaluation tools such as a survey of migrant youth belonging implicated us as evaluators in sustaining dominant, deficit-based ideologies about migrant youth, that is, that learning English and assimilating to White, English-only norms in the United States is the only pathway to success for migrant youth. While the library program was developed with the intention of creating a space for newcomer youth to define and identify a sense of belonging on their own terms (i.e., in ways that resisted dominant cultural expectations that they speak English and become economically productive; Rodriguez & Acree, 2020) and the evaluation was designed to be inclusive of and grounded in youth perspectives, we found that neoliberal ideals were persistent in stakeholder views, internalized in youth perceptions, and difficult to overcome through evaluative strategies and techniques. While the proliferation of these ideas in society and particularly in social science and evaluative inquiry is well-documented (Chouinard & Milley, 2015;Harvey, 2007;Mathison, 2018), we were repeatedly challenged by the numerous ways our evaluative efforts were confronted-if not undermined-by the production of newcomer youth identities as lacking outsiders in a normative system of schooling and an idea of what students should look like (e.g., learn English, gain employment, be economically useful).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…To this end, we first outline the theoretical influences that allow us to unravel how measurement tools such as surveys in this project created and sustained particular kinds of belonging for the migrant youth that were rooted in a priori notions of the future (Rodriguez & Acree, 2020). To engage ethical dilemmas in relation to our evaluation practice, our typology draws from Foucault's (1994) essay on the Genealogy of Ethics in which he outlines three dimensions that interact with our understanding of newcomer migrant belonging: power, truth, and ethics.…”

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confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Discourses of Belonging: Intersections of Truth, Power, and Ethics in Evaluation With Migrant Youth

Rodriguez

Acree

2021

Self Cite

This article problematizes methodological practices, specifically the use of surveys as tools of measurement in evaluation with migrant youth. Drawing from Foucault’s Genealogy of Ethics, we investigate the knowledge created about particular minoritized groups through the author’s current evaluation, the power relations involved, and the ethical dimensions of evaluation. We argue that ethical questions for evaluators are entangled in an era of neoliberal, audit culture in educational research. We offer a theoretical orientation for productive critique of methodological practice.

Evaluation Paradoxes: Responding to Tensions Between Stability and Change in Social Investment Evaluation

Nordesjö

2023

The relationship between stability and change is a central paradox of administration that pervades all forms of organizing. Evaluation is not unfamiliar with paradoxical objectives and roles, which can result in tensions for evaluators and stakeholders. In this article, paradoxes between stability and change in the implementation of evaluation, and responses to them, are investigated through the case of social investment funds in Swedish local government. From interviews with staff, managers, and evaluators, findings show how responses to four main paradoxes give priority to top-down summative evaluation that produces instrumental knowledge on outcomes and costs for decision makers. The responses show that the concept of social investment fund evaluation is elastic to contain paradoxes and address different audiences. Also, paradoxes within the structure of the organization develop into paradoxes concerning the roles and goals of evaluation, raising the question of whether individual actors can deal with paradoxes.