21: Early Scholar Evaluators Navigating the Politics of Reporting

As early career evaluators, navigating the politics of reporting can be challenging. This Birds of a Feather discussion examines how evaluators share leadership roles and community responsibility in their work by examining tensions between emphasizing participant voices and considering other factors of validity in reporting. The facilitating evaluation team completed a series of reports for a large, NSF Center and received particularly critical feedback related to participant perceptions. Additionally, reports completed after the change in presidential office have challenged the evaluation team to navigate emphasizing the importance of broadening participation while still complying with client guidelines. In this Birds of a Feather session, we use the following questions to guide conversation: How have you been challenged to diplomatically represent participant voices? When do dissenting voices need to be foregrounded? How do you navigate tensions in reporting? When and how is it necessary to validate, confirm, or check member experiences?

Ayesha Boyce