CENTERING VISION AND VALUES IN EVALUATION
EERS 2025 CONFERENCE THEME
The field and practice of evaluation is nearing a crossroads. As things change in the wider world around us, we must not lose sight of what makes evaluation important to ourselves and others. We need to deeply consider and reaffirm why we started as evaluators and why we continue to do this work. It is time for us to align our practice with the underlying vision and values that are critical to the field of evaluation.
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As evaluators in the modern world, we are often asked to be flexible and responsive. Societal and funding priorities can change quickly, and world events can cause upheaval in mere hours. All of this results in the need for us as evaluators to change with it – and change fast! But as we constantly shapeshift and evolve, we must never lose focus on the core beliefs that drive our work: the vision and values that form the foundation of us as individual evaluators and the larger field of evaluation itself.
At this crucial time in our field, EERS is responding by announcing the themes for the next two conferences.
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For the EERS 2025 conference, we are calling on attendees to remember and reflect on the core values that drive our current work. We want to provide space for discussion and disagreement on what it means to be an evaluator in today’s world. We want you to link the vision and values that you hold core in your beliefs to the current state of evaluation, as we explore the theme CENTERING VISION AND VALUES IN EVALUATION.
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For EERS 2026, we will come back together for our first in-person conference in seven years, and we will focus on the theme: Transforming Evaluation Through Vision and Values. This will provide us with an opportunity to discuss how we can reshape the practice and field of evaluation going forward – with a grounding in the vision and values that shape each of us.
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We hope you can join us for both conferences. We have important work to do. And there is no one better to meet the moment than the current evaluation community.