Introduction

In tandem with the expansion of evaluation activity across all sectors has come an increased demand for teaching and training which involves those who will become ‘external’ evaluators and those whose main interest is in participatory and self-evaluation within organisations. In the development of academic courses, as well as a wide range of other courses, which aim to convey succinctly the essence of evaluation as both theory and practice, the characteristics associated with evaluation activities may be seen as central to achieving agreed learning objectives. The nature of the interactions and contributions of evaluators and other social actors within individual settings and contexts (from inception and design to execution and emergence of any evaluation outcomes) are important to an understanding of evaluation. Within the experience of evaluators, attempts to elucidate praxis therefore take their place alongside consideration of evaluation principles and theory in addressing the challenge of how to develop effective learning and teaching on this topic.

The discussion presented here is concerned with reflections on learning and teaching about one specific dimension of theory and practice that holds a key to understanding evaluation – that is, the political. It does not describe the political effects of the process or findings from a ‘real’ evaluation, nor does it discuss the substantive political implications of different types of evaluation outcome. Its focus is how the politics of evaluation feature in learning and teaching. Where and how do the politics of evaluation come to the fore? The politics of evaluation in this context operate at macro- and micro-levels and need to be understood as the “plurality of perspectives and the existence of competing interest groups” (Clarke, 1999, p 19), or as Alkin (1990, p 51) states, “every evaluation is a political act, political in the sense that there is continuing competition for stakes among the clients of an evaluation”.

If evaluation is agreed to be an inherently political activity (through a commitment to change, by making judgements or providing the information on which judgements about policies, programmes and projects will be made) as argued by Pawson and Tilley among others (1997), where do politics find expression in the learning environment?