Читать книгу Evaluation in Today’s World - Veronica G. Thomas - Страница 129

In their book Social Psychology and Evaluation, editors Melvin M. Mark, Stewart I. Donaldson, and Bernadette Campbell (2011) explored the relationship between social psychology and the evaluation of programs, policies, and practices. They stress that Kurt Lewin, one of the most prominent social psychologists of the early 20th century, made important historical contributions—more than are often recognized—to evaluation. Considered the father of social psychology, Lewin contributed to evaluation most notably through his action research movement (Mark et al., 2011). He described action research as comparative research on the conditions and effects of various forms of social action, and research leading to social action, that uses a spiral of steps, each of which is composed of a “circle of planning, action and fact-finding about the result of the action” (Lewin, 1946, p. 38). This movement, taking place during the 1940s, led to the application of social psychology to social problem solving coupled with the need to evaluate those efforts in field settings. Another important area of Lewin’s work that was groundbreaking during his time (and became an important focus in contemporary evaluation approaches) is his focus on context. His field theory approach focused on studying behavior but without separating it from its natural context.

Mark et al. (2011) cited a number of contemporary approaches that were influenced by Lewin’s action research perspective. These include, for example, Fetterman’s (1998) empowerment evaluation, Rothman’s (1997) action evaluation research, Cousins and Whitmore’s (1998) practical participatory evaluation, and Patton’s (2008) developmental evaluation.