An adapted version of a community of practice approach to evaluation owned by indigenous stakeholders1
| Author | Janet McIntyre |
| Published date | 01 December 2002 |
| Date | 01 December 2002 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1035719X0200200214 |
| Subject Matter | Refereed Article |
REFEREED ARTICLE
Evaluation Journal of Australasia, Vol. 2 (new series), No. 2, December 2002, pp. 57–59
Janet McIntyre
An adapted version of a community
of practice approach to evaluation
owned by indigenous stakeholders1
Dr Janet McIntyre is a
Senior Lecturer in the
Flinders Institute of
Public Policy and
Management, Flinders
University, in
Adelaide, South
Australia.
Values are at the heart of the definition of well-being and are at
the heart of all evaluation initiatives. Unless the initial definitions
of evaluation are owned by the stakeholders’ groups (age,
gender, ethnicity, culture, language etc.) and shared to
develop a co-created sense of citizenship rights and
responsibilities (McIntyre 2000; Romm 2001), then the
process of evaluation may be compromised. This paper
discusses work in progress where the author acts as a
facilitator of indigenous facilitators
who are in the process of
developing an integrated model for governance that is defined
and owned by an indigenous public housing association.
Introduction
The author currently acts as a facilitator of indigenous facilitators who are in the process
of developing an integrated model for governance that is defined and owned by an
indigenous public housing association. The participants in this program utilise an adapted
version of a Community of Practice (COP) methodology (Wenger 1998) to undertake
ongoing integrated process evaluation. Because this involves Participatory Action Research
(PAR) (a systemic means to facilitate networking and collaboration amongst stakeholders
including service providers, communities and all levels of government), the Housing
Association members are the co-researchers and the actors.
Other indigenous communities could benefit from the process that was developed for
this project. Learning by doing (through PAR) builds ‘spiritual wellbeing’ not social capital
as suggested previously (King et al. 1999), and the choice of concept is ontologically
important to them (McIntyre 2003, forthcoming). The participants are active research
participants at all stages, from framing the research, reflecting on the findings, acting on
the data and evaluating the action. PAR is iterative; it is potentially empowering if the
participants who learn by doing own the process. This requires the development of an
ethical framework to guide the research and evaluation program.
Empowerment means helping people to achieve greater confidence and power
in the following areas: resources, relationships, information and decision-making
(Gilley 1990). This approach (based on research undertaken over a period of two
years in Alice Springs) is to support the capacity of indigenous housing
associations (for town camps) to set up a community of practice. The work in
progress aims to facilitate local indigenous facilitators to set up a COP and to use PAR as
an iterative means to assess its value and impact on improving governance, guiding and
designing the future development of indigenous living choices. This approach to problem
solving and research and to improving governance and management is owned by the
participants and supports existing initiatives and priorities. One advantage of the approach
is that the process of evaluation begins when the stakeholders make decisions on what the
long-term goals and objectives should be.
Social, cultural, political, economic and environmental contextual
issues
Alice Springs faces some of the same challenges as other regional and non-regional areas in
Australia (and elsewhere) such as the impact of privatisation on services and the reduction
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McIntyre – Community of practice approach to evaluation
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