A Critical Evaluation of the Work of Carol Weiss
There has been enormous change in the social sciences during the past few decades, particularly in respect to acceptable research methods and understandings of social reality. The knowledge claims of social science have come under attack from feminists and minority groups who contend that these knowledge claims have most often represented the social reality of a limited minority group of white, elite males. This has brought under discussion the relationship between empirical and normative aspects of inquiry practices and created a problem of evaluation in social inquiry (Schwandt, 1997).
One of the particular problems has been the problem of values, both in professional practice and in terms of social inquiry, including evaluation. If the ways of conceiving the moral life, and if the values of any group, differ from that of normative practice, then this is a problem for social science (Schwandt, 1997).
Feminist philosophy, critical theory, and hermeneutics have provided much of the grounding for the new discussion about the conduct of social science research and the evaluation of its results. It has often emphasized more qualitative measures, denying empiricism its "objectivity". Still, the need for evaluation has remained.
One of the current professionals noted for her work in program evaluation is Carol Weiss. Weiss, of Harvard University, has emphasized that although good data is useful and builds credibility, the sociological perspective on processes, events, and entities is equally important. Thus, participants in the process of developing, implementing, and evaluating policy all can benefit from understanding this sociological perspective, including forces that shape events (Weiss, 1993).
The intent in the following pages is to explore the work of Carol Weiss in the field of evaluation, look at some of the critiques of that work, and evaluate i...