Social Program Evaluation as a Reconstructive Hermeneutic

"This thesis sets forth a conception of social program evaluation as a reconstructive hermeneutic. Its purpose is twofold: to situate current discussions about evaluation's normatively grounded social action agenda within a more fundamental consideration of knowing and to explore the implications of a contemporary re-reading of the postmodern critique on program evaluation. The theoretical substance for these efforts is drawn from the philosophical discipline of phenomenological hermeneutics, specifically the work of Martin Heidegger. Heidegger's phenomenological concept of method is incorporated into a conceptual framework that recasts evaluation as a hermeneutic cycle of understanding and experiencing, which lets the evaluator come to know the program on an authentically ""ontological basis"" (Heidegger, 1996, p. 15). The operation of cycle, at theoretical and methodological levels, is expounded with a case example."

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Lloyd, Claire Amanda

Contributors dc:contributor

• DeStefano, Lizanne

• Education, Educational Psychology

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI3130971

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/79783