Why evaluation could be a bit weirder—or, queering evaluation
What does it mean to ‘queer’ evaluation? To me, it’s more than a primer on ‘how to do evaluation with LGBTQIA+ people’. I want to think about a queering of evaluation that doesn’t just tweak methodologies to be ‘more inclusive’ and ‘do no harm’, but which goes to the roots of evaluation’s paradigm.
Friends talking about evaluation
In honour of World Refugee Day, Lauren asked Pyching Marma (friend of String Theory) what he thinks about doing evaluations with and for refugee and asylum seeker peoples and communities.
Pyching was a LEEP intern at ASRC and an evaluation intern at Clear Horizon. He works in programs helping newly arrived migrant communities build lives in Australia and is a producer at SBS radio. You can learn more about Pyching here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pychimong-marma/
For me, the act of doing evaluation is similar to the process of making a sculptural piece of art using matter found in the world.
As an evaluator, I am involved in creating sculptural masses and artefacts. A sculpture involves creating a representation through moulding matter. Artefacts are objects created by humans through investigative procedures that have a cultural interest. My work involves using unpredictable and messy processes to gather and sculpt found matter. Every evaluation I conduct produces some type of artefact. The colour and shape of each artefact are informed by the beauty and uniqueness of the materials I gather. The mass and shape of each artefact changes as it finds relational kinship with other artefacts to tell a story about the nature of the world.
My reflections on the recent Australian Evaluation Society conference
A young calf reflects on her experiences of attending the most recent Australian Evaluation Society conference.
A piece where I try to explain my work, using only top 1000 most used words in my language
I want to do something a bit different here. This piece was written using only the 1000 most used words. To do this, I used something on my computer called Simple Writer – it will not let you use other words in your writing. It is interesting to try to make your writing as simple as possible. It is harder than you think!
My life as an Organisational Hotdog
This is a post about the times that I, a fancy professional evaluation lady, wore costumes in the conduct of my evaluation work.
Get the Hawaiian!
My happiest moment as an evaluator was the time I was leaving the school grounds of the Sacred Heart Primary School in Fitzroy, $50 cash in my hand, headed towards Umago to buy some pizzas (RIP Umago), with a chorus of grade six students yelling 'GET THE HAWAIIAN' from the school fence boundary as I departed on my heroic pizza journey.