Chapter 6: Methodological Critique of the Knowledge Base

We would be remiss in analyzing the state of the art of the empirical knowledge base on participatory evaluation without examining methodological considerations in some detail. We have made the general case that evaluation as a field of practice has suffered from limited attention to empiricism. Yet, as we have seen in Part II, there has been considerable empirical interest directed toward participatory evaluation over the past decade and a half. Having examined the substantive contributions of that scholarship and tried to identify prevailing themes of interest, we now turn to an examination of research methodologies. What sorts of research designs have researchers brought to bear? What types of methods do they employ? What measures of quality assurance are taken and how confident can we be of the findings? To what extent are nonevaluators stakeholders involved in knowledge production about participatory evaluation? These are the questions we seek to answer in this chapter.