aes19 International Evaluation Conference

Francesca Demetriou (), Eunice Sotelo (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership), Aneta Cram (Katoa Ltd)

In the context of professionalisation, the evolving role of the evaluator, and the varied and changing entry points into the field, what does it mean for early career evaluators entering and planning a career in this space?

In this interactive session, ran by and aimed at early career evaluators, exploratory research into the experiences and needs of early career evaluators in Australia will be shared, reflected and collectively built upon.

This session will begin with a short presentation on the preliminary findings of research exploring the experiences of early career evaluators from a variety of backgrounds and contexts, the commonalities and differences of their experiences, their supports and challenges, and the questions they have about their development.

This will be followed by a world café style session to engage the community of early career evaluators who are present to reflect on the themes and their own experience, explore their own learnings and challenges, as well as the burning questions that they want to have answered! Feedback will serve to validate, add nuance and enrich the learnings from the initial research.

The session will provide the opportunity for early career evaluators to connect into a community of peers, and build their support networks as they continue their journey of development, whilst actively contributing into research that will add to the knowledge base around what is working and what is needed to support pathways into and up in the evaluation profession.

Discussion generated will be synthesised and shared with session participants via email following the conference. The discussion will also contribute to the research findings, which we will write up into a cohesive report (final product to be determined) that may help inform the AES capacity building strategy.