Wadsworth, Yoland

(b. 1951, Melbourne, Australia). Ph.D., B.A., Monash University, Melbourne.

Wadsworth has contributed to evaluation theory in a number of ways, including the two approaches to evaluation called open inquiry and audit review; the concept of multireference groups (commonly referred to as stakeholders) and the metaphor of them “coming to the table” together in evaluation activity; the critical reference group perspective as a method for guiding evaluation design, questions, theoretical analyses, problem-solving formulations, and applied trial results; and moving beyond the positivist or relativist conundrums.

Her contributions to evaluation practice include pioneering the use of fourth-generation and fifth-generation evaluation, including the use of dialogic and multilogic crossover designs (e.g., exchange of evaluative material between stakeholders and the iterative generation of further evaluative material and new practice and policy); the application of participatory action research to internal evaluation, extending to the use of “whole systems” or “scaled-up” action evaluation; and building in evaluation to daily practice in health and human services, particularly including the active engagement of service users.

Influences on Wadsworth's work are the classical U.K. and U.S. urban and suburban community studies; the critical and interpretive theory of Alvin Gouldner and Anthony Giddens; and, later in her work, nonreificatory systems thinking, group analytic and type and temperament theory, social movements, and every client with whom she has ever worked. In evaluation, she is most appreciative of Patton, Lincoln, and Guba's intellectual contributions.

Wadsworth was part of the pioneer evaluation field in the newly expanding public services during the 1970s in Australia (especially child and family health and community services and community health). She was the convener of the Melbourne Evaluation and Research Group network for a decade and author of Australia's best-selling introductory evaluation text Everyday Evaluation on the Run (now in its second edition). She was the 1995 recipient of the Australasian Evaluation Society's Caulley-Tulloch Prize for Pioneering Evaluation Literature (with Maggie McGuiness and Merinda Epstein) for a sequence of studies involving building in consumers' evaluative feedback to, and collaboration with, staff of acute psychiatric hospital services. In 1996, she was the recipient of the Australasian Evaluation Society's Evaluation Training and Services Award for outstanding career contribution to evaluation.