Constructivist Capacity Building and Systemic Evaluation of Adult Basic Education and Training in South Africa
- 1 July 1998
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Evaluation
- Vol. 4 (3) , 329-350
- https://doi.org/10.1177/13563899822208635
Abstract
What follows is a discourse of coherence: first through an epistemic triangle conjoining three epistemological traditions of systems thinking, dialectical thinking and constructivist thinking; and, second, in a praxeological triangle that unites planning, implementation and evaluation in one single act of reflective action with purpose. Working from within these two mutually embedded triangles of coherence, a discourse on the Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) initiative of South Africa was developed in necessary and sufficient detail, to capture the calculus of means and ends of ABET as well as the dynamics between its intended objectives and its actual effects. This one general discourse is subsequently used to generate two specific scripts: one on capacity building, and another on evaluation. There are implications here for theory and practice for both program development and program evaluation. Understandings of how the social world works, holistic educational planning, functional specialization without fragmentation, reflective action for implementation, critical management, participative learning, inbuilt evaluation, and thereby economy in the deployment and use of materials and professional resources, all become possible.Keywords
This publication has 5 references indexed in Scilit:
- Competing Economic Ideologies in South Africa's Economic DebateBritish Journal of Sociology, 1996
- Evaluation: Review of the Past, Preview of the FutureEvaluation Practice, 1994
- Empowerment evaluationEvaluation Practice, 1994
- Training evaluators in the third world: Implementation of the Action Training Model (ATM) in KenyaEvaluation and Program Planning, 1989
- Naturalistic inquiryInternational Journal of Intercultural Relations, 1985