SPEaR developing best practice guidelines
Developing best practice guidelines to support quality research and evaluation is a key area of work for the Social Policy Evaluation and Research (SPEaR) committee.
Raewyn Good, Principal Analyst – SPEaR, outlined progress at the recent Social Policy, Research and Evaluation conference in Wellington.
“First, it must be acknowledged that there is scope to lift the game and ensure that the range of skills and expertise available in the community of practice is actually utilised throughout the research and evaluation process,” Raewyn said.
She emphasised that the development process was an iterative process, and sought to engage people with particular interests and expertise.
The process began in 2002 with four strands of work identified for attention: R&E involving Mäori, R&E involving Pasifika, contracting, and applying ethics. Initial work involved discussions with a range of people and an extensive literature search and analysis.
This work was drawn together into a series of papers which formed the background to a series of workshops held in May 2004 (see www.spear.govt.nz for these papers).
The workshop participants came up with a number of recommendations for SPEaR to consider and these were reported in Raewyn’s presentation.
SPEaR has set up a working party sub-committee to oversee the next phases of development. At present, a draft list of guiding principles has been identified, namely: respect, integrity, responsiveness, competency and reciprocity.
Descriptors are currently being drafted, and these will be tested in several agencies to see how the theory applies in practice.
The proposed structure for the guidelines at present is to have three linked parts – generic descriptors (the principles described), applied descriptors (the principles applied to the four work areas outlined above) and applied examples (case studies illustrating the application of the principles in real-world examples).
People are invited to participate in the process of development. “They may wish to send in examples of contract clauses they have negotiated (such as intellectual property, publication arrangements, or data sharing/ownership arrangements), and send in case study material – both good and not so good,” Raewyn said.
Contracting of particular expertise is part of the work plan for 2005 and, as material develops, it will be available via the SPEaR website so people can comment if they choose.
“Above all, we want people to engage. Something useful, not something on the shelf, is the goal,” Raewyn said.
