Youth Participatory Evaluation: A Field in the Making
Sabo, Kim (2000).
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass; 112 pages. $27.00. ISBN 0787970743.
The objective of this slim but powerful volume is to share field experience about how, when and why to include children in participatory evaluation. It emerges from rapidly converging methods in community development, participatory action research and cognitive science and is underpinned by the need for greater inclusivity across all domains. Sabo carefully sets the stage for the contributions of leaders in the field by illustrating theories of community development through action research, participatory evaluation, positive youth development and the emergence of youth participatory evaluation.
A group of leaders in the field of youth and child participation, including international researchers, evaluators and practitioners, gathered in June 1999 for the Children’s Participation in Community Settings conference, sponsored by Childwatch International Research Network and the Growing Up in Cities project of the MOST program of UNESCO. Eventually three related conferences took place, culminating with a symposium on Youth Participation in Community Research and Evaluation in 2002. Each chapter in Sabo’s volume deals with one or more arguments for including youth participation in evaluation made during this conference.
One key observation made in this book is that youth participation fundamentally changes relationships between youth, between adults, and between youth and adults, supporting all to perform in advance of their current level of development (Sabo 2001). An important assertion is that youth are best situated to collect data from other youth and therefore might produce data that is more valid and reliable than that collected by adults. Further, this more effective collection of data lends itself to actively changing, modifying and adapting programs while they are in process, a form of participatory action research.
One of the most significant contributions of this volume is to introduce or remind international scholars and professionals about the seminal role of Lev Vygotsky in participatory research and practice. A Russian educator and psychologist, Vygotsky worked with children in the 1930s. In some ways, this collection mirrors an intentional Vygotskian learning environment, with the 2002 Youth Participation in Community Research and Evaluation conference as a performance and participatory evaluation tool, emerging from the collaborative research and practice of international experts working with children today.
In the introductory article, “A Vygotskian Perspective on Youth Participatory Evaluation,” Sabo quotes Vygotsky’s work on the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) to explain that “’What is in the zone of proximal development today will be the actual developmental level tomorrow– that is, what a child can do with assistance today she will be able to do by herself tomorrow’” (1978, 87). Sabo cites her undergraduate mentor, Lois Holzman, a highly respected Vygotskian scholar and professional, who suggests that the ZPD is the continuously changing “distance” between being and becoming (2000, 88). As Vygotsky (1978) would say, people learn “by performing a head taller than they are” (102).
Professionals in participatory research and practice recognize that the many ways group activities inform individual and group thinking are important characteristics of participation but difficult to measure. Vygotsky and his colleagues Luria and L’eontev developed Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) or socio-cultural activity theory to explain how collaborative performance, activity or learning leads to development. In this theoretical perspective, collaborative practices are situated within cultural and historical contexts. Rather than being easily parsed for further research into independent and dependent variables, these influences overlap, fade into, engage with and supercede each other over time to co-create and mutually constitute learning environments. Barbara Rogoff (2003) suggests that human development is a process of people’s changing participation in the socio-cultural activities of their communities. She theorizes that children’s thinking tools are provided by culture and especially through more skilled partners in the ZPD, suggesting that these tools are both inherited and transformed by successive use in dynamic cultural changes.
Babbie (2004) describes the role of researcher as resource and suggests that those affected by participatory action research should be responsible for its design (Whyte, Greenwood and Lazes 1991). In a similar vein, Gaventa (1991) believes that research functions not only as way to produce knowledge but also as a tool for the education and development of consciousness as well as mobilization for action (121–122). Some researchers deplore more traditional research as “elitist,” reducing subjects to objects of research. Sabo’s collection demonstrates the ways that evaluation can simultaneously link community and youth development in a reciprocal relationship. The call to all reflective practitioners (Schon 1991) is to consider the shift from an emphasis on product to a balance between product and process; to imagine the relationships between empowerment, democratization and participation; and to consciously and intentionally recognize the evolution from “dualistic epistemological arguments that pit practical or utilization focused evaluators against the more transformative or empowerment-focused evaluation” (Sabo 2003, 8).
These issues thoughtfully construct a platform to spotlight best practices in creating environments of increased or accelerated youth participation. In this volume, Sabo very effectively showcases answers to the question, “How do we design and produce environments that support ongoing growth and change?”
References
Babbie, E. (2004). The Practice of Social Research. 10th Edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
Gaventa, J. (1991). “Towards a Knowledge Democracy: Viewpoints on Participatory Research in North America.” In O. Fals-Borda and M.A. Rahman, eds. Action and Knowledge: Breaking the Monopoly with Participatory Action-Research. New York: Apex Press, 121-131.
Holzman, Lois (2000). “Performance Psychology: An Untapped Resource for Educators.” Educational and Child Psychology 17(3): 86-103.
Rogoff, Barbara (2003). The Cultural Nature of Human Development. Oxford, UK: The Oxford University Press.
Sabo, Kim (2001). “The Benefits of Participatory Evaluation for Children and Youth.” PLA Notes. London: International Institute for Environment and Development.
Schon, D.A. (1991). Educating the Reflective Practitioner. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Whyte, W.F., D.J. Greenwood and P. Lazes (1991). “Participatory Action Research: Through Practice to Science in Social Research.” In F. Whyte, ed. Participatory Action Research. New York: Sage, 19-55.
Vygotsky, Lev S. (1978). Mind in Society. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
Reviewer Information
University of Colorado and Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
Barb Stuart is currently the Active Community Environment Coordinator for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment's Physical Activity and Nutrition initiative (COPAN). She is on the faculty of the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver teaching high performance and international management and on the faculty of the Executive MBA of the American University in Sofia, Bulgaria. She is also a freelance consultant, always looking for her next international engagement. Her research interests are in participatory planning, collaboration and consensus building and conflict resolution. Address: Barbara.Stuart@colorado.edu