Evaluation ethics for best practice: cases and commentaries.

摘要

This book has six main chapters, each commencing with a hypothetical scenario that poses a complex ethical dilemma for an evaluator. These scenarios are followed by commentaries from two experienced evalu-ators. Eyaluators explain what they think ethical guidelines have to say on the matter concerned, how they would deal with issues presented and their rationales for responding as such. After these expert commentaries the editor analyses differences and similarities in their approaches, draws conclusions and poses further challenges to the reader about how she or he would respond in a comparable situation. A second scenario and questions for consideration by the reader (but no associated expert commentary) conclude each chapter. The book follows the life course of an evaluation. After a brief introduction the second chapter considers an ethical issue occurring during negotiations over an evaluation contract. Subsequent chapters consider ethical problems in evaluation design, data collection, data interpretation and analysis and communicating evaluation findings. The penultimate chapter is concerned with how evaluations findings are implemented and entails a scenario where research is misrepresented by a political figure. A summary of 'lessons learned' completes the book.