EdPsy 498: ADVANCED EVALUATION THEORY Wednesdays 3-6pm, Education 162

Instructor: Thomas A. Schwandt

Advocacy? (of what?) Partisanship?  Value-neutrality?  Methodological pluralism?  Political neutrality?  Pursuit of objective knowledge? Can ideals of scientific freedom and social responsibility can be reconciled?

There is a widespread debate about the proper role of social science (and the social scientist) in society in the current literature on both social theory and theory of social science.  This is hardly a new dispute, but it is being pursued in the current intellectual climate with renewed interest and vigor from a variety of different epistemological and disciplinary perspectives.  This debate has special currency in the field of social and educational program evaluation, particularly in view of the growing interest in using theories of deliberative democracy to frame the responsibilities and obligations of the evaluator.

In this seminar we will collectively engage in a descriptive and normative examination of the relationship of evaluation (and more broadly, social science) to society.  We will be reading literature in evaluation, educational research, and the social sciences that addresses issues of advocacy, value-neutrality, partisanship, and so forth.  Thus, the seminar should have broad appeal to students in different departments both within and outside of the College of Education.

The seminar will be structured in two-parts.  In the first part (approximately the first 5 weeks) of the course, we will read, discuss, and critically analyze four different treatments of the issues:

B. Flyvbjerg, Making Social Science Matter: Why Social Inquiry Fails and How It Can Succeed Again.  Cambridge University Press, 2001.

M. Hammersley, Taking Sides in Social Research: Essays on Partisanship and Bias. Routledge, 2000.

E. House & K. Howe, Values in Evaluation and Social Research. Sage, 1999.

R. Proctor, Value-Free Science? Purity and Power in Modern Knowledge.  Harvard University Press, 1991.

In the second part of the course, students in the seminar (either in pairs or individually) will select readings (one or two journal articles, a key book chapter, etc,) that illuminate issues in the broad discussion of the social responsibility of social science that they wish to examine within their specific field(s) of study.  Those readings will be distributed in advance for discussion and analysis by all seminar members. In this way, we will collectively form a broader and deeper understanding of the issues as they cut across fields of specialization.

There will be two required papers for the seminar: (1) a critical appraisal of a key issue across the 4 required books (c. 8- 1 0 pgs.), (2) a critical discussion of an issue within one's field of specialization (c. 10-15 pgs.) Details about these paper requirements will be discussed in class.

For additional information, contact the instructor at schwandt@ruc.dk.