Eval Cafe

Double the Carolyn’s, double the depth of conversation! We’re joined this week by Carolyn Hoessler, facilitator, curriculum developer, evaluator, and Founder of Higher Education and Beyond. After a brief chat on evaluation in higher education contexts, we dive into the topics of sense-making and evaluative thinking, covering What-So What-Now What, the Cynefin framework, children as complex adaptive systems, and the power of saying “I don’t know”. Plus, Brian takes some time to answer the question “Is water wet?”, and Carolyn Camman says something nice about the field of evaluation.

Full show notes available on our website.

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On this week's episode, we're joined by Khalil Bitar, chair of the EvalYouth Global Network for a wide-ranging conversation. We touch on the trends we're seeing with young and emerging evaluators, why we should consider contrarian opinions, the value of evaluative thinking, and how we can work in service of equity and justice without sacrificing methodology and rigour.

Full show notes available here.

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In this episode, we’ve invited listeners from across the globe to join us in checking in, connecting, and being human with each other as we respond to the COVID-19 crisis. Thank you to Ann, Jade, Cameron, Zach, Carolyn H., Shelby, Tom, Sarah, Libby, Kelly, Naomi, Trilby, Megan, Chris, Khalil, and Nicky for being part of this episode and sharing your stories.

Full show notes available at our website.

Find out more at https://eval-cafe.pinecast.co

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In this episode of Eval Cafe (one of only two places where evaluators really get crunk, according to guest Andy Johnson, with the other being the Diversity TiG social at the annual AEA conference), come hang out with our super panel of returning guests—Andy Johnson and Nora Murphy Johnson (Inspire to Change), and Chris Corrigan (Harvest Moon Consulting) as we expand chronos and play infinite games in kairos. We start by jumping into the question, “What does evaluation offer and what does evaluation need in times of great uncertainty and injustice?”, and follow that thread through a conversation about how evaluation delivers uncertainty instead of certainty, why arts-based evaluation exists (aside from being the coolest evaluation), evaluators as accompanists and ‘friends of the process’, Nora’s outline of her theory of transformation (plus one addition from Chris), exoskeletons, endoskeletons, why evaluation needs imagination to be rigorous, spaciousness, how to play in complexity, and how interesting it is how many problems can be solved in exactly the three years of a granting cycle.

Full show notes available at our website.

Find out more at https://eval-cafe.pinecast.co

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Brian and Carolyn dive into the year 2020 with a characteristically reflective episode where we review the highs and lows of 2019 and our ambitions and intentions for the year ahead. From Brian’s “tripped on a skateboard, slipped on a banana peel, did a triple lutz, and somehow stuck the landing” to Carolyn’s “living in the surprise of it”, we talk about the tribulations of evaluation consulting and finding our respective niches, how the ‘sausage gets made’ vis a vis the podcast, tease our respective plans for 2020 and some potential episode topics and guests, and go deep on what it all means. Will Carolyn get that Red Rose tea sponsorship? Will Brian keep his digital spaces decluttered? How many books does Carolyn sleep with? Will Brian EVER have a Year of the Trombone? And how are evaluators like Casper the Friendly Ghost? Only time (and this episode) will tell!

Full show notes available at our website.

Find out more at https://eval-cafe.pinecast.co

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Carolyn and Brian attended AEA 2019, and reflecting, learning, connecting, and hilarity ensued! Especially when they realized that they almost forgot how to properly record a podcast (on that note, sorry about Brian's poor audio quality). Topics covered include conference rooming as a means for testing friendship, praises for the footwear choice of a past podcast guest, reimagining the conference and our footprint on the host community, and the merits of a river of coffee.

Full show notes available at our website.

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Kelly Hannum joins Carolyn and Brian this episode to talk about leadership and its connection to evaluation. After defining what “leadership” actually means (spoiler: it involves direction, alignment, and commitment), we discuss evaluation’s power to question the premise, the transformational power of leadership development, the importance of relational or “soft” skills in both evaluation and leadership, and the connection between evaluation and strategic planning. Also, we learn more about Carolyn’s back story and declare an official position of the podcast on a key evaluation issue.

Apologies for a few audio glitches in this one!

Full show notes available on our website.

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David Keyes joins Carolyn and Brian to talk about R - the open-source statistical package, that is, not the letter (or the pirate vocalization). Once we got past Brian’s bad pun, we discussed the benefits of using code, how to get started with R, and using the software to help communicate results. We also learned that R is not just a tool for statisticians and that there’s a welcoming online community of folks helping newbies and creating equity-focused tools. Come for the statistical package, stay for the community!

Content heads-up: There is a short discussion of a community response to a sexual assault case starting at 49:34. If you want to skip this discussion, you can skip ahead to the next chapter in your podcast player or fast-forward to 52:55.

Full show notes available here.

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This episode brings the evaluation joy with the blue-collar scholar and aspiring academic stand-up comedian, Dr. Nicole Bowman, of [Bowman Performance Consulting] (https://bpcwi.com/). Nicky joins us to talk about evaluation as medicine and how we can heal ourselves, our communities, and our world through the service of evaluation. Nicky shares how she’s figuring this out in her own practice and lays down some fundamentals that all evaluators need to know about the context of our work. We get into practical ways to try new things and do evaluation differently, touch on imposter syndrome and the importance of working in community, and we laugh. A lot. Come listen and be “crazy in love with evaluation” with us!

Full show notes available on our website

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We’ve mentioned it in passing in multiple episodes, but today we go into a deep dive on the Evaluation for Social Change and Transformational Learning program (course? certificate?) offered through Simon Fraser University. Joining us in this conversation are Kim van der Woerd (also our first repeat guest!), Billie Joe Rogers, and Sofia Vitalis from Reciprocal Consulting to share their perspectives as designers and instructors in the program’s first year. We talk about personal and social transformations, the intertwining of evaluation and leadership, the weaponization of data, and the importance of saying hello to a problem before you can say goodbye to it.

Full show notes available on our website.

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