Intersections between Participatory Evaluation and Social Pedagogy When Assessing Socio-Educational Projects

Social pedagogy is a science, a practice, and an art that was born from the need to provide an educational response to sociocultural situations and problems that confront individuals, groups, and communities. Participatory evaluation is a methodological strategy in which program evaluation is understood through the construction of shared knowledge, user participation, and collective decision-making. Although both social pedagogy and participatory evaluation have been variously defined in academic debates, an analysis of the intersection between the two is lacking. The main objective of this study is therefore to analyze the relationship and intersections between participatory approaches in evaluation and the scientific discipline of social pedagogy. To this end, a semi-structured questionnaire was designed to collect quantitative and qualitative data from 18 academics in seven countries. The results reveal the importance of eight pedagogical dimensions identified in the development of participatory evaluation, which are defined in this research. The study also discusses the potential and limitations of applying participatory evaluation to socio-educational projects. The aim of this research is to broaden the scientific debate on the intersection between social pedagogy and participatory evaluation, providing data that will improve the implementation of participatory evaluation in social pedagogy, thus encouraging greater user participation in this context.