Evaluation research in Australasia: Moving forward
| Author | Ralph G. Straton |
| Published date | 01 December 2001 |
| Date | 01 December 2001 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1035719X0100100206 |
| Subject Matter | Evaluation Research |
24 Evaluation Journal of Australasia, Vol. 1 (new series), No. 2, December 2001
This is the text of Ralph’s farewell
Presidential address, delivered at the
AES 2001 conference. Ralph
continues to direct the Institute for
Social Program Evaluation at
Murdoch University.
Ralph G. Straton
Evaluation research in
Australasia: Moving
forward
evaluation research
Evaluation research has now been a distinct and identifiable component of
social programming in Australasia for over 30 years. In the early 1970s,
only the eyes of a few had been opened and of these only a minority had
more than a rudimentary understanding of what they could see. But for
them, the concept and the vision were compelling and inspiring.
It was such a simple concept; to make our social programs maximally effective we
needed to gather feedback information on their attainments, and then those
responsible would make whatever adjustments were necessary so that the program
goals would be achieved. The vision was compelling and inspiring because we all
wanted to be part of a process that would lead to the eradication of poverty, all
children reaching their educational potential and effective health care being delivered
to all who needed it, and here was a straightforward way to help ensure that that
would happen.
The evaluation studies undertaken in Australasia during this early period of the
‘modern program evaluation’ era were primarily guided by the experiences and
writings of American evaluators, particularly, those of Stake, Stufflebeam, Scriven
and Suchman. The broad sweep of Michael Scriven’s conceptualisations was
breathtaking and awe-inspiring, the meticulous attention to detail of Dan Stufflebeam
was impressive and overwhelming, the down-to-earth commonsense of Bob Stake
made it all seem doable, and Suchman put forward a persuasive and understandable
integration of the evaluation process overall. Nevertheless, we still fell into the same
traps for young players that the Americans had done, and in fact still were, and we
mostly failed to fully appreciate the significant differences between program
evaluation and social research more generally.
Challenge and change were at hand, however, with Stephen Kemmis and others
bringing back from Britain the radical notions of a case-study approach and
qualitative methods in evaluation. Spawned in the hotbed of left-wing evaluation
radicalism at the University of East Anglia by Barry Macdonald, David Jenkins,
David Hamilton and their colleagues, these ideas sparked intense debate between
followers of the hard-nosed experimental/quasi-experimental and quantitative
methods-oriented, American-inspired orthodoxy and their soft-nosed, earthy, British-
inspired challengers.
By the mid- to late 1970s, while Bob Stake, a recent convert to evaluation using
case study and qualitative methods, was playing largely a lone hand in the US with
only limited effect, in Australia and New Zealand these so-called ‘alternative’
methods were widely accepted, in educational evaluation at least, as having a
legitimate role. (Although it should be acknowledged that Bob Stake’s weekend
colloquium ‘Case Study Evaluation in Britain and the Colonies’ did cause a minor
Get this document and AI-powered insights with a free trial of vLex and Vincent AI
Get Started for FreeStart Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting