Chapter 3: Methods and Description of the Knowledge Base

In this chapter, we describe the body of studies that we selected for our review, each of which was based on original empirical research. We describe below our selection criteria and our efforts to enhance quality assurance. Admitted to the sample is a large number of articles that we would classify as reflective case narratives. These “studies” are essentially stories about evaluation case experiences usually told through the eyes of the evaluators or a team of authors consisting of evaluators and/or members of the program community. Despite the fact that none of these studies included a methods section, we admitted them as being empirical because they are based on actual retrospective observations of evaluations that took place. In some sense, such studies may be considered a form of participant observation. In total, we found 121 studies that matched our criteria for inclusion and that we subsequently analyse according to the conceptual framework outlined in Chapter 2.