Deliberative Forums

Deliberative forums consist of facilitated, democratic conversations during evaluative inquiry. Deliberative forums reinforce principles of democratic pluralism by consciously positioning people with different opinions and authority in evaluative discourse. The methodology of the deliberative forum is an instrumental tool for bringing the theory of deliberative democratic evaluation into practice.

Deliberative forums are most useful when crafted into the unfolding dialogue during the design phase of an evaluation; they can be reformulated throughout the inquiry. Differences of perception among evaluation stakeholders are the focus of the deliberative forum. For example, when designing an evaluation for a social service program, the funders of the program might propose examining the frequency of service utilization. The providers of the services might want to examine program processes and operations. The clients of the services might suggest that consumer satisfaction be the primary focus for the evaluation. The deliberative forums provide an opportunity for the diverse stakeholders to talk with one another about their different points of view. By consciously balancing the representation of administrators, program managers, and clients in discussions about the design of the evaluation, the evaluator hopes to create a degree of mutuality of understanding among the participants. Questions for the evaluation study can then be cocreated so that they are inclusive of the different points of view.

Evaluations that integrate deliberative forums into the inquiry process are attentive to the overt and tacit power distributions surrounding the evaluand. It is assumed that power differentials exist and that there will be degrees of risk associated with deliberations among people who have more authority than others. Attention is granted to weighting the representation of the typically disenfranchised stakeholders in the deliberative forums. The evaluator is careful to craft opportunities that will elicit the inclusion of those with lesser authority into the deliberations. Incorporating deliberative forums into the inquiry process is more successful when the evaluator has established a partnership within an organization that promotes a culture of learning. Evaluators often serve as community builders and educators as they attempt to create safe spaces for dissonance among participants who might be struggling with each other's different points of view.

Evaluators choosing to integrate deliberative forums into their practices tend to be concerned with the role of evaluation as it relates to issues of social justice. Deliberative forums provide opportunities for evaluation participants to widen their awareness of how their circumstances are linked. In creating an equal values exchange among participants of different authority and opinion during evaluative inquiry, deliberative forums offer evaluation participants the opportunity to think together about what is important to know and how to go about the knowing.