Decolonizing evaluation education in South Africa: A reflective case study of master’s curriculum reform through a Made-in-Africa evaluation lens

This article reports a course-level reform of a master's course in evaluation at the University of Cape Town that seeks to embed decolonization principles in teaching and learning. Using a reflective case study, graduates reflected three years after completion on the utility of their training through a decolonial lens as articulated through the Made-in-Africa Evaluation (MAE) movement. Reflections indicate that a decolonized orientation can positively reshape the practice of emerging evaluators while exposing tensions in existing course design. Priority areas for change included reworking how visual program theory is developed and used, reducing reliance on a Western-dominant literature base when judging theory plausibility, and recognizing the limits of even locally validated or adapted tools to capture situated meanings. We also note structural features that favor average treatment effects in quantitative teaching and cross-cutting themes in qualitative work, often at the expense of individual narratives and power-laden context. We propose course design principles and practices that center lived experience, language, and diverse knowledge traditions. Our approach is likely to speak to African evaluation teachers and decolonial oriented institutions, as well as to non-African evaluators who seek training in evaluation that might equip them to work responsibly in African contexts.