Explicit and Unconscious Dimensions of the Evaluation of Educators

The project presented in the paper is related to the evaluation of adult education staff. It shows that there are systems, procedures and regulations related to evaluation literature, to guide lines and policies indicated by the European Union, and by national and local institutions. A qualitative perspective on evaluation, however, shows that a ‘’grey area’’ of evaluation exists, related to not-codified, implicit evaluation routines, habits, emotions, unconscious impulses. The Project uses a set of methods. For the investigation step, a systematic literature and policies reviews were made as well as semi-structured interviews. The cooperative approach between researchers and practitioners referred to the Schon’s perspective. The training course for evaluators, however, has been carried out with the method of research-training, in order to gather information during the training itself. It is going to demonstrate that is necessary to build a complex training of evaluators, able to integrate rational and interpretative/clinic approaches, in order to achieve a comprehension of the whole. It is necessary for the evaluators to get consciousness of the emotional dimensions of the evaluation and for the institutions and the policy makers to open the procedures of evaluation and to make space also for other more qualitative approaches.