Community Advocate and Co-Creator BECOME Highland Park, Illinois, United States
Abstract Information: Applying metaphors to our evaluation work can shift the boundaries we place in how we think, the perspectives we take, and how far our imagination expands (Morgan, 1980). Metaphors can particularly serve evaluators when asking community members and other stakeholders to envision more liberated futures. Yet, metaphors do not remove boundaries, but rather rearrange them, exposing new perspectives while concealing others (Morgan). While metaphors often provide pathways towards communicating and conceptualizing complexity, they can also back us into corners. This poster asks viewers to consider and share how you have used (and mixed!) metaphors in your evaluation work to ignite imaginations and shift and expand boundaries in thinking, while also reflecting on how to avoid the challenges and limitations that metaphors can impose. Stop by to chat about how we as evaluators might support others to open their imaginations while also holding space for reflection on what lurks on the edges beyond the barriers our minds impose, and how to navigate and harvest the ideas that arise across contradictory figurative landscapes.
