Representations of Reality in Evaluation

The question of what is real and how it is represented are seldom problematised in evaluation reports and articles. The presentation of reality is more often than not built around theories of change and logic models that make tacit assumptions about whose reality counts—particularly in measures of outcome and impact. Stockmann (2024) stated that “evaluation in its most general form is an assessment or judgement of a circumstance or object on the basis of information” (p. 12). Definitions can become quite complicated when the “whole elephant” is considered (Gullickson, 2020). From a simple definition, a can of worms begins to open up as we begin to ask some perhaps logical questions like “why is the assessment required?”, “what will it be used for and how?”, “what is the basis for judgement?”, and in terms of ‘information’, “where does it come from?”, “who will it be given to?”, and “who will benefit from the assessment?”. At the core of these questions are propositions about representation and reality.