University-Based Evaluator Education Programs in Ghana: Stakeholder Reflections to Promote Learning

What is currently known about evaluator education comes from university-based programs in high-income countries, especially the United States. A concurrent mixed-method approach was used to examine the development and implementation of university-based evaluation programs in universities that offer masters and doctoral programs in evaluation in Ghana. The perspectives of stakeholders in the evaluation community comprising faculty members, evaluation professionals, employers, commissioners of evaluations, and graduates from evaluation programs highlight critical topics, approaches, and methods that should be included in formal evaluator education programs (EEP) to prepare professionals for scholarship and practice. The findings point to the need for EEP designers to reflect on the relevance and effectiveness of their evaluator education programs and offer new insights into research on evaluation education. A key lesson from this study is that inputs from the evaluation stakeholder community into the development of evaluation education curriculum, is critical for shaping university-based evaluator education programs.

Nathaniel Mensah-Odum – Senior Research Assistant, Bureau of Integrated Rural Development, Kwame Nkrumah University Of Science And Technology, Kumasi, Ghana