LEG Seminar Series: Session 4

27th June 2024

We welcomed Barbara Befani and Jessica Ozan to the final of the Lancaster Evaluation Group’s (LEG) hybrid seminar series, discussing “Suitability and creativity in evaluation design: prioritising the needs of participants.”

Barbara Befani presented her work on “Hybridity and creativity in evaluative practice.” Using single methodologies in evaluation is increasingly rare. There is now widespread awareness that designs ought to be bespoke and adapted to an evaluation’s specific circumstances. Various terms have been used to describe these designs, but what does creating bespoke or hybrid designs mean and entail? Mixing, combining, adapting, comparing? This seminar attempts to clarify the ambiguity by distinguishing between four actions: comparing or selecting appropriate methods, co-designing evaluations by engaging stakeholders, combining or mixing otherwise self-standing options, and using hybrid (or inherently quali-quanti) methodologies. The discussion will include how to ensure quality under all of these circumstances.

Jessica Ozan presented her work on “Putting Children and Young People at the heart of evaluations.” Some of the first evaluations in the United Stated focused on youth and educational policies (e.g., the Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study in the 1930s, the Eight-Year Study 1932-1940). The studies aimed to capture the effectiveness of different juvenile delinquency interventions or curricula and very much focused on administrative data. Practice has drastically changed over the last century. Alongside the “new sociology of childhood” and children’s rights movement, evaluators are now trying to create safe spaces for children and young people to participate meaningfully in studies that concern them. Dr Ozan will explore what this means for evaluation practice today in the UK. What does participation look like? Is this compatible with all methodologies? Who commissions evaluations focusing on children and young people? What are they key challenges and pitfalls? And most importantly, why are we putting children and young people at the heart of our evaluations?