The Higher Education in the Ghanaian Context (HEGC!) study abroad program was created to engage participants in a critical examination of concepts related to power, privilege, and oppression within higher education settings in Ghana and the United States. The course has three components: pre-immersion, immersion, and emersion that are guided by a…

Over the last decade, societal pressure has increased on public research agencies to provide evidence that their research contributes to achieve development goals. To address this challenge, the French Agricultural Research Center for International Development (Cirad), developed an ex-post impact assessment method based on the impact pathway…

In January 2014, I began working as an evaluator on an education reform project being implemented by faculty in science and engineering departments at my university. The core goals of the project were for participating faculty members to improve students' learning, engagement, and recruitment and retention in selected introductory-level courses…

There is currently a paucity of literature in the field of evaluation regarding the practice of reflection and reflexivity and a lack of available tools to guide this practice--yet using a reflexive model can enhance evaluation practice. This paper focuses on the methods and results of a reflexive inquiry that was conducted during a participatory…

This ethnographic case investigates the relationship between the daily organizing work of one education technology "intermediary organization" (IO) in Silicon Valley, California and federal education technology policies. I argue that the IO constructed policy knowledge that reified discourses of "digital meritocracy": a belief…

Cultural theorists have illuminated how photographic images contribute to autobiographical remembering and identity formation. This has new significance given that digital photography now allows personal images to circulate rapidly amongst peer groups. Taking these insights into classroom contexts, this paper draws on recent case-study data to…

A tool used in student-centered education is discussion among students in small learning groups. The Western origin of student-centered education, coupled with cross-cultural differences in communication styles, may detract from its cross-cultural applicability. This study investigates how in student-centered education, students' cultural…

The General Certificate of Education (GCE) A Level Dance specification, offered by the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA), is the only GCE course of study in the UK that focuses solely on dance. Acquisition of subject specific knowledge is a feature of its aims, while assessment, as constructed by its objectives, is assumed to be a…

This article is an empirically grounded critical exploration of conflict between two associated higher education agendas--audit-driven accountability and academic innovation. Feeding into a discourse of quality, audit and power, it considers how far prevailing economic-bureaucratic models of higher education accountability might actually inhibit…

Two models of instructional innovation seeking to explain why some innovations are successful are synthesized and illustrated in the course evaluation system at the University of Birmingham. Success factors include cooperation among faculty in different areas, openness of evaluation, "ownership" of innovations, leadership, and authority…

Presents a model for theoretical consideration of classroom practices by teachers themselves. An example of this interpretive process of theory informing practice, and reflection on practice then reshaping theory, is provided in this case study of two teachers who introduced portfolio reading and writing assessment programs in their secondary…

The utilization of program evaluation is addressed and illustrated through the case study of a family reunification program at a New England child welfare agency. It is argued that evaluation is an exercise in power in an organization. Evaluators who understand power can work with the realities they find. (SLD)

Responsive evaluation offers a perspective in which evaluation is reframed from the assessment of program interventions on the basis of policy makers' goals to an engagement with and among all stakeholders about the value and meaning of their practice. Responsive evaluators have to be extra sensitive to power relations given the deliberate…

This essay is the author's battle cry for help in revitalizing democracy. It deals with the institutions in which the future citizens are being educated. It deals with the undemocratic way in which schools are run. Given the time and space, the author would like to narrow the focus of his battle even further and argue for a revitalization of…

A case study of the Colleges of the State University of New York at Buffalo is presented to analyze the problem of change in higher education and the role played by a theory of change. A brief sketch of the history of the Colleges from the beginning to the end of the 1970s is presented to provide a context for a discussion of strategy of change.…