Empowerment through Construction:A Practice Research on Social Work Third-Party Empowerment Evaluation
In China,social work has been tasked with contributing to social governance,particularly following the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.As social work professionalization grows,third-party evaluations have become es-sential for evaluating social service effectiveness and professionalism.Theseevalua-tions are also key to adjusting government-society relations,enhancing social gover-nance capabilities.Traditionally,third-party evaluations have been critiqued for their limitations,particularly in focusing more on management efficiency and government oversight than on fostering the professional growth of social workers.Empowerment evaluation,as developed by Fetterman,centers on enabling par-ticipants to take control of their projects while enhancing both project effectiveness and participant self-determination.This method encourages collaboration among stakeholders,promoting a dynamic adjustment of service goals and tasks during the evaluation process.In this way,it fosters reflective practice among social workers,allowing them to critically assess and adapt their services based on real-world chal-lenges.This research addresses the gap between governance and professional effec-tiveness by focusing on an empowerment evaluation framework.Our study adopts an practice research methodology,using the social gover-nance evaluation project of agency A in L City as a case study.The study unfolds in four phases:initial investigation and needs assessment,evaluation plan design,prac-tical implementation of the evaluation,and final evaluation with stakeholder inter-views.Researchers acted as both evaluators and participants,shifting between vari-ous roles to ensure a holistic understanding of the empowerment evaluation process.Data was gathered through in-depth interviews with 32 stakeholders,including gov-ernment officials,social organization leaders,and frontline social workers.Ethical considerations were maintained,with anonymization of all participant identities and informed consent being obtained.Via practice research and in-depth interviews our study found that the empower-ment evaluation process was implemented by creating a dialogue space between evaluators and the evaluated social workers.It involved stakeholder meetings,obser-vation of service environments,and systematic feedback loops.The evaluators fo-cused on improving social worker autonomy,helping them critically reflect on their practices and adjust services based on community needs.Also,empowerment evalua-tion helps bridge the gap between social work theory and practice.By shifting the fo-cus of evaluation from government oversight to professional development,social workers became more engaged in reflective practices,improving their service deliv-ery.The empowerment approach also allowed for a more nuanced understanding of the social environments in which the social workers operated.For example,in one community where residents were resistant to paying property management fees,the empowerment evaluation process helped social workers mediate conflicts by foster-ing dialogue between residents and property management.Several key mechanisms were identified as instrumental in professionalizing so-cial work through practical process of empowerment evaluation:(1)Breaking the evaluator-evaluatee Divide:The evaluation process actively disrupted traditional hi-erarchies,where evaluators are seen as experts and social workers as mere subjects.Instead,social workers were treated as equal partners in the evaluation,enabling them to take ownership of the assessment and outcomes.(2)Fostering Environmen-tal Integration:By emphasizing on-the-ground engagement,social workers deepened their understanding of the communities they served,allowing them to respond more effectively to local needs.(3)Process and effectiveness Oriented:The evaluators guide social workers to reflect on contentious issues,align service goals with com-munity needs,and collaboratively design more integrated,reflective service frame-works for effective community governance.(4)Task-Driven Learning:The action-oriented nature of the evaluation provided social workers with concrete learning op-portunities,directly connecting theoretical knowledge with practical applications.Despite its strengths,the research faces limitations.The practice research meth-odology,while immersive,may limit the generalizability of the findings beyond the specific case of L City's social governance projects.Additionally,the empowerment evaluation process requires significant time and resource investments,which may be challenging to replicate in less resource-rich settings.Another limitation is the heavy reliance on qualitative data,which,while offering deep insights,may lack the objec-tivity and generalizability of quantitative metrics.In conclusion,this study demonstrates that empowerment evaluation can signifi-cantly contribute to the professionalization of social work by fostering a reflective,participatory process that enhances both service quality and social worker develop-ment.The evaluation shifts the focus from a top-down,government-driven model to a collaborative,bottom-up approach,creating space for social workers to engage critically with their work.However,the approach's scalability and broader applica-bility remain areas for future research.In summary,this study presents empower-ment evaluation as a promising method for enhancing the professional capacity of so-cial workers while improving the overall effectiveness of social services.
万方数据
维普
