As the end of the year rushes up relentlessly, we thought this week we would share a simple story about the gap between words and deeds, and between receiving information and acting on it.

The question is “Which one of these is the evaluator?”

Charlie bit my finger – again

A recurring theme on the Genuine Evaluation blog has been the need for methodologies that adequately articulate and investigate the conceptual and values frameworks of participants and intended users – including the use of Indigenous Research Methodologies.

Next year’s International Conference on Social Science methodology, to be held in Sydney July 9-13 , will have a session focusing on ‘Indigenous Methodologies in the Modern Age’.

Proposals for papers for this session should be submitted by 1 December 2011.

The RC33 Eighth International Conference on Social Science Methodology
will be at the
University of Sydney, Australia, July 9 – 13, 2012.

A session focusing on ‘Indigenous Research Methodologies in the Modern Age’ has been convened by Bagele Chilisa (University of Botswana); Fiona Cram (Kaota Ltd, New Zealand), and Donna M Mertens (Gallaudet University, USA).

The main themes of the session include:
- Recovering, valuing and internationalizing of postcolonial indigenous  epistemologies, methodologies, and methods.
- Exploration and critique of the dominant paradigms, using arguments based on the philosophies of the researched, as well as their ways of knowing and their experiences with colonization, imperialism, and globalization.
- Presentation of postcolonial indigenous research paradigms as frameworks to explore the philosophical assumptions that undergird the use of postcolonial indigenous methodologies.
- Theorizing postcolonial indigenous ways of doing research, exploring the application of these methodologies through examples of such research.
- Examining the implications of interconnectedness and relational epistemologies as frameworks within which to discuss postcolonial indigenous methodologies from across the globe.
- Critically examining power dynamics within the context of research in postcolonial and indigenous communities.

The intended audience includes: Transnational and international researchers who work in indigenous communities, either as outsiders or insiders to the community. Also researchers who work in communities that are marginalized on the basis of other dimensions of diversity, such as those in poverty, the disabled community, and women. Faculty, students, and researchers in postcolonial studies and cultural studies programs, indigenous education programs, community-based research, and international development will be invited as well.

Proposals can be submitted to the attention of specific tracks or session themes. The tracks and session themes can be found by clicking on the tracks and sessions link on the right side of the conference web page.

You are invited to submit an abstract for this session, by 1 December 2011.

For further information, contact:

Fiona Cram, PhD
Katoa Ltd
E: fionac@katoa.net.nz
T: +64-9-550 2231
M: +64-21-774 690
http://www.katoa.net.nz

One of the hardest things about the AEA conference is making difficult choices between great sessions. One of the themes I’m keen to follow through is how evaluation can address complex aspects of interventions and organizations.  When I used the wonderful Conference Search program on the AEA website to look for sessions which referred to ‘complex’, this is the smorgasbord that popped up (and while I suspect some, like the picture here are using the word to refer to something more like complication, there are still many that are exploring important territory).

It’s just over a week until the annual conference of the American Evaluation Association in Anaheim, California (the home of Disneyland).  For those who will be attending, we hope to see you there!  For those who can’t make it this year, there is still a chance to share some of the presentations virtually.

This week we’re going to highlight some of the sessions we’re particularly looking forward to. We begin today with two sessions from the new Topical Interest Group Data Visualization and Reporting (DVR TIG) which promise to add to the quality of presentations at the conference. (Thanks to John Nash, program co-chair with Stuart Henderson, for his AEA 365 post on this):

Ignite Event Thursday, November 3, at 7:15 PM. California Ballroom, Section B, at the Hilton Anaheim

Ignite is a presentation event where presenters share their personal and professional passions using 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds for a total of just five minutes. The AEA Ignite event will feature talks from David Fetterman, Susan Kistler, Chris Lysy and many more. Contact John Nash if you want to present an Ignite talk at AEA 2011 john.nash@uky.edu.

If you can’t be there, visit the IgniteAEA website (www.igniteaea.wordpress.com), follow the event on Twitter via @igniteaea, or check in on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=250608891640443).

Pre-conference Slide Clinic Tuesday, November 2 from 6:00-9:00 pm in the Laguna room.

Described as  slideshow triage. Any AEA presenter can bring her or his conference slides to the clinic and get individualized expert advice on layout, design, and aesthetics. The clinic is a way to promote the TIG’s goal of helping evaluators make their data more clear, so that it more useful and usable for audiences. For more information on the slide clinic contact Stephanie Evergreen at stephanie@evergreenevaluation.com.

For lessons in how to communicate both the answers to questions and the unanswerable questions, we present John Clarke and Brian Dawe’s inimitable explanation of the European financial crisis.

The European Crisis