Developing an ethical rationale for collaborative approaches to evaluation

As a deeply relational, dialogic, engaged and political approach, the collaborative research context is fairly unique in the world of research, and as such opens up an entirely new set of ethical considerations that serve to differentiate it from other approaches, repositioning ethics as a fundamental rationale for collaborative inquiry. In this paper, we revisit the justifications for collaborative approaches to evaluation—the three Ps—which have become integral to our discourse about the genre. We then elaborate on our rationale for exploring ethics as a legitimate interest in collaborative approaches to evaluation, with special consideration given to why ethics should become an essential consideration moving forward, specifically in terms of the moral obligations of collaborative approaches to evaluation practitioners. We then re-envision the inclusion of an “ethic of engagement” along seven interconnected dimensions, what we refer to as the Seven Rs of collaborative practice: reflexivity, relationality, responsibility, recognition, representation, reciprocity, and rights.