184: Centering Community in Evaluation: Building an Agenda for Research on Evaluation Focused on Engagement

Engagement is widely recognized as a cornerstone of high-quality, useful, and relevant evaluation. Yet, evidence on what makes engagement effective, particularly for diverse communities, remains limited. To address this gap, we expanded on Brandon & Fukunaga’s (2014) review through a scoping study of the empirical literature on Research on Evaluation (RoE) and engagement. From 27 studies, we synthesized findings to (a) identify how engagement has been conceptualized in a subset of studies; (b) describe methodological characteristics used to examine engagement; and (c) characterize strategies utilized to guide the design and quality of engagement for more equitable research practices. This poster presents our review findings and highlights several priorities to advance the field, including: Set standards for how engagement is examined empirically; clarify conditions that support successful partner selection; measure outcomes of engagement to understand its impact; innovate methods and designs to expand the empirical base. Focusing on these areas can close persistent gaps in RoE, strengthen evaluation practice, and build evaluations that foster equitable, meaningful collaborations with communities.