Appearances and Cultural Symbols as Formal Functional Symbols: on the Hermeneutics and Recognition of Yorùbá Dress Code

This paper argues that Yorùbá dress codes (fondly called traditional dress) ought to be symbols of both cultural and formal identity. As part of the being of the Yorùbá, dressing represents more than covering human nakedness, it defines the individual just as it symbolizes different things and moods. Colours, designs and functions all serve as symbols. Unfortunately, within these symbolisms the Yorùbá dresses are not generally welcomed as symbols of formal environments (especially nongovernmental corporate offices). Such outfits at best may be allowed as a dress-down. Formal symbolisms of Yorùbá dresses are restricted to political office holders or government functionaries, beyond which cultural attires are reserved for social functions. In other words, corporate dress codes do not give room for normative or psychological recognition of Yorùbá cultural dressing. Although in recent years Africans have given life to very rich indigenous identities, which have begun to re-affirm the functionality of our arts, yet not many people today have tried to relate these to questions of corporate dressing. It is believed that African cultural symbols are better reflected as traditional symbols. The methods of exposition, hermeneutics, conceptual analysis and critical evaluative reasoning are used in this paper to expose on the one hand Yorùbá dress symbolisms and on the other hand to submit that Yorùbá costumes are as formal as wearing a tie and suit to the office. This lends a voice to the recognition and incorporation of Yorùbá garments (and other African cultural dresses) into general formal symbols.

Combining multiple approaches to valuing in the MUVA female economic empowerment programme

Evaluation and economics each have distinct approaches to valuing. These approaches are traditionally separated by disciplinary boundaries. However, they can and should be combined. Value for money (VFM), in particular, is a shared domain of the two disciplines, because it is an evaluative question about the economic problem of resource use. A theoretical and practical model for combining valuing approaches has been developed through doctoral research. This article presents and reflects on an example – an international development programme where VFM has been assessed using mixed methods (qualitative, quantitative and economic). Under this approach, evaluative reasoning provides the means for integrating economic values with other criteria and evidence. Deliberation with stakeholders strengthens the valuing process, enhancing validity, credibility and use.

Developing evaluation criteria using an ethical lens

Selecting and justifying relevant criteria is critical to defensible evaluative reasoning, yet there is little advice in the literature to guide practitioners in criteria development. In this article, we introduce a framework that draws on normative ethical perspectives to systematically identify and justify relevant dimensions of value for a public sector–funded program. We illustrate, through an example taken from a recent research project, how evaluators might use the framework to be more thoughtful about identifying and selecting the values against which judgements are made. The potential strengths and limitations of the framework are then discussed.

Avaliação de projetos e desenvolvimento do pensar avaliativo: relato de um percurso

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">A principal finalidade deste artigo é jogar luz ao potencial pedagógico das avaliações de projetos e programas sociais e educacionais para o desenvolvimento do pensar avaliativo das organizações e de suas equipes. Apresentam-se o relato sobre o percurso avaliativo de uma organização da sociedade civil do campo educacional e a análise das aprendizagens geradas pelo processo avaliativo de um de seus projetos, baseados em percepções reflexivas e autoavaliativas dos profissionais envolvidos obtidas por meio de entrevistas semidirigidas individuais e coletivas. Observou-se que o processo avaliativo, realizado de maneira interativa e dialógica, pôde contribuir para a ampliação da consciência crítica sobre o projeto, favorecendo o desenvolvimento do raciocínio avaliativo dos participantes, orientando-os para o pensar e o saber-fazer avaliativo crítico, autônomo e emancipatório. Conclui-se que a potência pedagógica das avaliações de projetos para a construção de um pensamento avaliativo nas organizações é ampla, mas ainda timidamente explorada.</span></p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Palavras-chave</strong>: </span></span>Avaliação de Projetos, Aprendizagem, Ambiente Participativo, Cultura de Avaliação.</p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"> </p><p><strong>Evaluación de proyectos y desarrollo del pensar evaluativo: relato de un recorrido</strong></p><p>La principal finalidad de este artículo es aclarar el potencial pedagógico de las evaluaciones de proyectos y programas sociales y educativos para desarrollar el pensar evaluativo de las organizaciones y sus equipos. Se presentan el relato sobre el recorrido evaluativo de una organización de la sociedad civil del campo educacional y el análisis de los aprendizajes generados por el proceso evaluativo de uno de sus proyectos, basados en percepciones reflexivas y autoevaluativas de los profesionales involucrados, que se obtuvieron por medio de entrevistas semidirigidas individuales y colectivas. Se observó que el proceso evaluativo, realizado de manera interactiva y dialógica, pudo contribuir para ampliar la consciencia crítica sobre el proyecto, favoreciendo el desarrollo del razonamiento evaluativo de los participantes, orientándolos al pensar y al saber hacer evaluativo crítico, autónomo y emancipatorio. Se concluye que la potencia pedagógica de las evaluaciones de proyectos para construir un pensamiento evaluativo en las organizaciones es amplia, pero todavía tímidamente explorada.</p><p><strong>Palabras clave:</strong> Evaluación de Proyectos, Aprendizaje, Ambiente Participativo, Cultura de Evaluación.</p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"> </p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"> </p><p><strong>Project evaluation and evaluative thinking: reporting an experience</strong></p><p>The main purpose of this article is to throw light on the pedagogical potential of educational programs’ evaluations with the intention of building capacity of evaluative thinking in social organizations and their teams. It presents the path of a civil society organization in the educational field and the analysis of the learnings generated by the process of evaluating one of its projects. It was based on the reflective and self-evaluative perceptions of the professionals involved and obtained using data collection from semi-structured individual and collective interviews. The evaluation process, which was conducted in an interactive and dialogical way, contributed to the expansion of the critical consciousness about the project, favoring the development of the evaluative reasoning of the participants, guiding them to thinking evaluation critically, autonomously and actively. In conclusion, the pedagogical potential of project evaluations, for the construction of an evaluative thinking in organizations, is broad but still little explored.</p><p><strong>Keywords</strong>: Project Evaluation, Learning, Participatory Environment, Evaluation Culture.</p>

Argumentation Representatives in German Scientific Text

The paper deals with the study related to linguistic representation of argumentation in German scientific text. The structure of argumentation in scientific reviews from German journals «Lebende Sprachen», «Muttersprache», «Zeitschrift fr Phonetik, Sprachwissenschaft und Kommunikationsforschung », «Zielsprache Deutsch», which are the objects of study, has been presented in this paper. Argumentation in a scientific critical text is not just a logical procedure but also a kind of activity performed by a reviewer. Argumentation demonstrates an evaluative reasoning, where reasonable and emotional evaluations are expressed in a variety of ways and at the same time they have standard norms. It should be call information sharing, verification, evaluation and persuasion as main components of argumentation process, where the persuasion is a dominant component in the scientific text interpretation.

Om metoden i normativ politologi

Political science is typically considered an empirical science; that is, it builds its conclusions upon data analy- sis. However, some studies within the eld of political science concern normative questions and cannot use empirical data in the same way as the empirical sciences but must instead rely on evaluative reasoning. is article proposes a systematic way of thinking about the method of normative political science. It elaborates upon the central elements of this method and argues that, contrary to what one might think, the method of normative political science is similar to that of mainstream political science in many respects.