From Classroom to Practice: Cocreation as Liberatory Preparation for Evaluators

Abstract

Preparing future evaluators for equity-centered practice requires more than teaching evaluation theory; it requires modeling the shared authority that theory calls for. This qualitative case study examines a doctoral course on equity-informed assessment and evaluation in which curricular cocreation served as both a pedagogical practice and a site of evaluator preparation. Drawing on the liberatory pedagogies of Freire and hooks and evaluation theory, we propose a conceptual model of linking classroom cocreation to evaluation preparation through shared decision-making, power sharing, and evaluator competencies. Participants described cocreation as transformative, reshaping their identities and agency, and reported applying negotiated authority and equity-minded criteria to their professional evaluation practice. Despite feelings of discomfort, the course expanded students’ capacities to negotiate authority and center community-defined values. This case demonstrates that cocreation can function not only as inclusive pedagogy but as a mechanism for preparing evaluators to enact evaluation's liberatory commitments in practice.