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This chapter describes the possibilities for fusing ethnography and evaluation to transform educational inquiry and educational entities (programs, systems, and policies). The central question explored is, how do we best pursue work connecting evaluation and ethnography to fulfill our commitments to diversity, justice, and cultural responsiveness in educational spaces, to make tangible transformative change? With 40 years of literature on ethnography-evaluation connections as a foundation, this chapter describes three coalescing themes: transformative, intersectional, and comparative. These themes are proposed as valuable for guiding contemporary educational inquiry that serves social justice. The transformative theme denotes educational inquiry in which the researcher or evaluator ethically collects data, makes defensible interpretations, and facilitates social change in collaboration with others. Doing transformative work that meaningfully fuses ethnography and evaluation rests on essential factors like time, values engagement, collaboration, and self-work. The intersectional theme describes intersectionality as an evolving analytical framework that promotes social problem-solving and learning via investigating the significance of intersecting social identities in (a) how people's lives are shaped, (b) their access to power across circumstances, and (c) their everyday experiences of subordination and discrimination. Finally, the comparative theme refers to sensibilities and practices gleaned from the interdisciplinary and transnational field of comparative education, including developing comparative cultural understanding and analyzing complex systems in one's inquiry projects. Across themes, this chapter emphasizes positionality, responsibility, and theory-bridging to make sense of the uses of ethnographic concepts and practices in transformative evaluation work in educational spaces.

Brand image remains a “nebulous” construct with very few frameworks dedicated to understanding the process of uncovering brand image. This is supported by explicit calls for greater clarity on how to examine brand image, particularly in different settings. Political branding is one setting that has received some attention, however, research has focused on “party” political brands and neglected “non-party” brands (independent candidates). Therefore, this study aims to examine how young citizens interpret independent non-party brands through the theoretical lens of brand image in the context of Guernsey and develop a systematic brand image framework that provides greater clarity to this topic area.

A qualitative interpretivist approach using focus group discussions was adopted to investigate the phenomenon from the perspective of young voters 18–24 years of age. Focus group discussions ceased upon reaching theoretical saturation and a six-staged thematic analytical strategy was adopted to analyse the findings.

This study revealed deep insight into the political brand image of non-party brands from the perspective of young voters in an under-explored context. More specifically, this study uncovered that Guernsey’s political brands were seen as “accessible”; however, there was little differentiation, identification and connection between young voters and politicians. Further, this study uncovered a series of opportunities for strategists such as the desire for a younger generational view and younger representation in the Guernsey Parliament and greater clarity, distinction and authenticity related to political brand image.

This study addresses explicit calls for further research on brand image with a distinct focus on non-party political brands. Further, this study concludes by presenting the “consumer brand image schema”; a systematic framework which can be used to uncover brand image within and beyond the setting of politics. Further, the framework operationalises the complex concept of brand image and provides a three-stage process to examine and develop brand image. This will enable strategists to develop targeted strategies and adopt appropriate tactics to manage brand image to ensure brands are differentiated and interpreted as authentic, relatable, engaging, accessible and identifiable.

This book chapter briefly discusses the historical and cultural context of ethnography and evaluation as positioned in the United States and the opportunities made possible by merging techniques and methodology. By merging, methodological pluralism and increased responsiveness to cultural contexts are leveraged, and the critical relevance of engaging communities in evaluation processes is underlined. However, engaging with communities with marginalized backgrounds can present complicated power dynamics in practice that require the evaluator to rethink their role. Equity-centered research practices from the Equity-Centered Research Framework are linked to expound on the need for transforming the evaluator's role to shift and share power with communities throughout engagement. We expand on how transformative work also requires ongoing examinations of positionality in the evaluator role through the lens of relationships. Borrowing from ethnographic concepts, relational dimensions of positionality are conceptualized as alignment, temporality, and place. Each component is illustrated with details on how power dynamics may occur throughout community engagement as well as ways to manage and mitigate power differentials between the roles of the evaluator and community partners. We then offer three broad evaluator practices to support transformation: (a) identify positionality, (b) embed into everyday practice, and (c) negotiate in collaborations with communities. With these practices, we reflect on critical questions and position communities as critical learning partners to promote actions to mitigate and manage ongoing power dynamics. We close this chapter with our experiences interrogating positionality to illustrate distinct burdens and insights as evaluators of color.

This study aims to explore the influence of creative tourist experiences (CTE) on tourists’ recommendation intentions (RCI) toward creative tourist destinations. This study examines the roles of tourist engagement and satisfaction in this relationship, proposing a sequential mediation model based on the cognitive-affective-conative model.

The research surveyed travelers to Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh, India, using a structured questionnaire. Through purposive sampling data were collected from 413 generation Z (Gen Z in short) tourists. The study used exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and sequential mediation analysis. The present research used Model 6 by Andrew Hayes in the SPSS process macro to test the serial mediation.

The findings emphasize the importance of active engagement in creative tourism and its potential to transform cultural heritage into enriching experiences, thereby influencing tourists’ recommendation behaviors. Results of sequential mediation analysis show that there is a significant and positive impact of CTE on tourist’s RCI. Further, results showed the sequential mediation effect of tourist engagement and satisfaction on the relationship between CTE and RCI.

The findings offer valuable insights for destination managers and policymakers in creative tourism. Enhancing tourist engagement and satisfaction through creative experiences can effectively increase RCI, contributing to the sustainable management of cultural resources and preventing the over-commercialization of cultural heritage.

This research contributes to the literature on creative tourism by empirically testing the sequential mediation model and highlighting the pivotal role of tourist engagement and satisfaction in transforming creative experiences into positive behavioral outcomes. This study provides a nuanced understanding of the factors influencing tourists’ RCI in creative tourism contexts.

Teacher agency plays a crucial role in teachers’ professionalism and makes them capable of acting powerfully in their teaching context. The purpose of this study was to explore the role of case-based instruction (CBI) on the agency development of EFL (English as a foreign language) student-teachers.

The study followed a descriptive narrative design and involved ten student-teachers in five CBI sessions. The data collected through different data sources, such as narratives, interviews, recorded sessions and focused groups, were analyzed using a deductive-inductive thematic analysis.

The results showed that CBI has a constructive role in developing the agency of EFL student-teachers. Active participation in CBI sessions helps teachers consider their future desires. The exploration of cases in CBI sessions helps them recall past experiences that led to the development of their agency. Brainstorming ideas in CBI sessions helps teachers consider their beliefs in decision-making and analyze their past experiences. In conclusion, CBI can help develop teacher professionalism and acknowledgment of the importance of teacher agency.

The research has addressed student-teachers’ agency development through an ecological perspective and CBI.