Abstract
This is interview data collected in the course of studying an educational program in four Chicago schools partnered with neighborhood arts agencies. It is empirical data, but it is unlike test scores, costs per student, or graduation rates . It is vividlyexperiential, differently compelling. It is qualitative data.
I know a Puerto Rican girl who became the first in her family to finish high school and who then got a nursing degree. She started at the gallery by participating in an art program, then worked at the front desk. I know an Hispanic girl, a participant in one of our drama programs and later a recipient of our housing resource program, who was the first in her family to earn a college degree. She now works in the courts with our battered women program.…. Yesterday, I had lunch at a sandwich shop and met a young woman … who got a full scholarship to the University of Illinois and was the first in her family to speak English or go to college. She said, “That art program was the best thing that ever happened to me.” (P. Murphy, personal communication, December 2, 1994, quoted in Mabry, 1998b, p. 154)
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Abma, T. (1997). Sharing power, facing ambiguity. In L. Mabry (Ed.), Advances in program evaluation: Vol. 3 Evaluation and the post-modern dilemma (pp. 105–119). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Brandt, R.S. (Ed.). (1981). Applied strategies for curriculum evaluation. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Brodkey, L. (1989). On the subjects of class and gender in “The literacy letters.” College English, 51, 125–141.
Campbell, D.T. & Stanley, J.C. (1963). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for research. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin.
Carter, K. (1993). The place of story in the study of teaching and teacher education. Educational Researcher, 22(1), 5–12, 18.
Chelimsky, E. (1994). Evaluation: Where we are. Evaluation Practice, 15(3), 339–345.
Cohen, L.J. (1981). Can human irrationality be experimentally demonstrated? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 4, 317–331.
Datta, L. (1994). Paradigm wars: A basis for peaceful coexistence and beyond. In C.S. Reichardt, & S.F. Rallis (Eds.), The qualitative-quantitative debate: New perspectives New Directions for Program Evaluation, 61, 153–170.
Datta, L. (1997). Multimethod evaluations: Using case studies together with other methods. In E. Chelimsky, & W.R. Shadish (Eds.), Evaluation for the 21st century: A handbook (pp. 344–359). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Denzin, N.K. (1989). The research act: A theoretical introduction to sociological methods (3rd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Denzin, N.K. (1997). Interpretive ethnography: Ethnographic practices for the 21st century. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Denzin, N.K. & Lincoln, Y.S. (2000). Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Derrida, J. (1976). On grammatology (trans. G. Spivak). Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Dilthey, W. (1883). The development of hermeneutics. In H.P. Richman (Ed.), W. Dilthey: Selected writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Eisner, E.W. (1981). On the differences between scientific and artistic approaches to qualitative research. Educational Researcher, 10(4), 5–9.
Eisner, E.W. (1985). The art of educational evaluation: A personal view. London: Falmer.
Eisner, E.W. (1991). The enlightened eye: Qualitative inquiry and the enhancement of educational practice. NY: Macmillan.
Erickson, F. (1986). Qualitative methods in research on teaching. In M.C. Wittrock (Ed.), Handbook of research on teaching (3rd ed.), (pp. 119–161). New York: Macmillan.
Fetterman, D.M. (1996). Empowerment evaluation: Knowledge and tools for self-assessment and accountability. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Foucault, M. (1979). What is an author? Screen, Spring.
Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures: Selected essays. New York: Basic Books.
Glaser, B.G. & Strauss, A.I. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory. Chicago, IL: Aldine.
Greene, J.C. (1994). Qualitative program evaluation: Practice and promise. In N.K. Denzin & Y.S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 530–544). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Greene, J.C. (1997). Participatory evaluation. In L. Mabry (Ed.), Advances in program evaluation: Evaluation and the post-modern dilemma (pp. 171–189). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Greene, J.C., Caracelli, V., & Graham, W.F. (1989). Toward a conceptual framework for multimethod evaluation designs. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 11, 255–274.
Greene, J.G. & Schwandt, T.A. (1995). Beyond qualitative evaluation: The significance of “positioning” oneself. Paper presentation to the International Evaluation Conference, Vancouver, Canada.
Guba, E.G. (1978). Toward a methodology of naturalistic inquiry in educational evaluation. Monograph 8. Los Angeles: UCLA Center for the Study of Evaluation.
Guba, E.G. (1981). Criteria for assessing the trustworthiness of naturalistic inquiries. Educational Communication and Technology Journal, 29, 75–92.
Guba, E.G. & Lincoln, Y.S. (1989). Fourth generation evaluation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Hedrick, T.E. (1994). The quantitative-qualitative debate: Possibilities for integration. In C.S. Reichardt & S.F. Rallis (Eds.), The qualitative-quantitative debate: New perspectives. New Directions for Program Evaluation, 61, 145–152.
Hodder, I. (1994). The interpretation of documents and material culture. In Denzin, N.K., & Lincoln, Y.S. (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 403–412). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
House, E.R. (1993). Professional evaluation: Social impact and political consequences. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
House, E.R. (1994). Integrating the quantitative and qualitative. In C. S. Reichardt, & S. F Rallis (Eds.), The qualitative-quantitative debate: New perspectives. New Directions for Program Evaluation, 61, 113–122.
House, E.R., & Howe, K.R. (1998). The issue of advocacy in evaluations. American Journal of Evaluation, 19(2), 233–236.
House, E.R., & Howe, K.R. (1999). Values in evaluation and social research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
House, E.R., Marion, S.F., Rastelli, L., Aguilera, D., & Weston, T. (1996). Evaluating R&D impact. University of Colorado at Boulder: Unpublished report.
Howe, K. (1992). Getting over the quantitative-qualitative debate. American Journal of Education, 100(2), 236–256.
Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation (1994). The program evaluation standards: How to assess evaluations of educational programs (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Jones, P. (1992). World Bank financing of education: Lending, learning and development. London: Routledge.
LeCompte, M.D. & Goetz, J.P. (1982). Problems of reliability and validity in ethnographic research. Review of Educational Research, 52, 31–60.
LeCompte, M.D. & Preissle, J. (1993). Ethnography and qualitative design in educational research (2nd ed.). San Diego: Academic Press.
Lincoln, Y.S. & Guba, E.G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Lyotard, J.-F. (1984). The postmodern condition: A report on knowledge. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Mabry, L. (Ed.). (1997). Advances in program evaluation: Vol. 3. Evaluation and the post-modern dilemma. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Mabry, L. (1998a). Case study methods. In H.J. Walberg, & A.J. Reynolds (Eds.), Advances in educational productivity: Vol. 7. Evaluation research for educational productivity (pp. 155–170). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Mabry, L. (1998b). A forward LEAP: A study of the involvement of Beacon Street Art Gallery and Theatre in the Lake View Education and Arts Partnership. In D. Boughton & K.G. Congdon (Eds.), Advances in program evaluation: Vol. 4. Evaluating art education programs in community centers: International perspectives on problems of conception and practice. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Mabry, L. (1999a). Circumstantial ethics. American Journal of Evaluation, 20(2), 199–212.
Mabry, L. (1999b, April). On representation. Paper presented an invited symposium at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Montreal.
Mabry, L. (1999c, November). Truth and narrative representation. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Evaluation Association, Orlando, FL.
Maxwell, J.A. (1992). Understanding and validity in qualitative research. Harvard Educational Review, 62(3), 279–300.
McLean, L.D. (1997). If in search of truth an evaluator. In L. Mabry (Ed.), Advances in program evaluation: Evaluation and the post-modern dilemma (pp. 139–153). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Mertens, D.M. (1999). Inclusive evaluation: Implications of transformative theory for evaluation. American Journal of Evaluation, 20, 1–14.
Miles, M.B., & Huberman, A.M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Newman, D.L. & Brown, R.D. (1996). Applied ethics for program evaluation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Patton, M.Q. (1997). Utilization-focused evaluation (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Phillips, D.C. (1987). Validity in qualitative research: Why the worry about warrant will not wane. Education and Urban Society, 20, 9–24.
Polanyi, M. (1958). Personal knowledge: Towards a post-critical philosophy. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Psacharopoulos, G., & Woodhall, M. (1991). Education for development: An analysis of investment choices. New York: Oxford University Press.
Reichardt, C.S., & Rallis, S.F. (Eds.) (1994). The qualitative-quantitative debate: New perspectives. New Directions for Program Evaluation, 61.
Rossi, P.H. (1994). The war between the quals and the quants: Is a lasting peace possible? In C.S. Reichardt, & S.F. Rallis (Eds.), The qualitative-quantitative debate: New perspectives. New Directions for Program Evaluation, 61, 23–36.
Rubin, H.J., & Rubin, I.S. (1995). Qualitative interviewing: The art of hearing data. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Saito, R. (1999). A phenomenological-existential approach to instructional social computer simulation. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.
Scriven, M. (1991). Evaluation thesaurus (4th ed.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Scriven, M. (1994). The final synthesis. Evaluation Practice, 15(3), 367-382.
Scriven, M. (1997). Truth and objectivity in evaluation. In E. Chelimsky, & W.R. Shadish (Eds.), Evaluation for the 21st century: A handbook (pp. 477–500). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Scriven, M. (1998, November). An evaluation dilemma: Change agent vs. analyst. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Evaluation Association, Chicago.
Scriven, M., Greene, J., Stake, R., & Mabry, L. (1995, November). Advocacy for our clients: The necessary evil in evaluation? Panel presentation to the International Evaluation Conference, Vancouver, BC.
Seymour-Smith, C. (1986). Dictionary of anthropology. Boston: G. K. Hall.
Shadish, W.R., Jr., Cook, T.D. & Leviton, L.C. (1991). Foundations of program evaluation: Theories of practice. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Smith, M.L. (1994). Qualitative plus/versus quantitative: The last word. In C.S. Reichardt & S.F. Rallis (Eds.), The qualitative-quantitative debate: New perspectives. New Directions for Program Evaluation, 61, 37–44.
Stake, R.E. (1973). Program evaluation, particularly responsive evaluation. Paper presented at conference on New Trends in Evaluation, Göteborg, Sweden. Reprinted in G.F. Madaus, M.S. Scriven & Stufflebeam, D.L. (1987), Evaluation models: Viewpoints on educational and human services evaluation (pp. 287-310). Boston: Kluwer-Nijhoff.
Stake, R.E. (1978). The case study method in social inquiry. Educational Researcher, 7(2), 5–8.
Stake, R.E. (1997). Advocacy in evaluation: A necessary evil? In E. Chelimsky, & W.R. Shadish (Eds.), Evaluation for the 21st century: A handbook (pp. 470–476). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Stake, R.E. (2000). Case studies. In N.K. Denzin, & Y.S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed.) (pp. 236–247). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Stake, R., Migotsky, C., Davis, R., Cisneros, E., DePaul, G., Dunbar, C. Jr., et al. (1997). The evolving synthesis of program value. Evaluation Practice, 18(2), 89–103.
Stronach, I., Allan, J. & Morris, B. (1996). Can the mothers of invention make virtue out of necessity? An optimistic deconstruction of research compromises in contract research and evaluation. British Educational Research Journal, 22(4): 493–509.
Stufflebeam, D.L. (1997). A standards-based perspective on evaluation. In L. Mabry (Ed.), Advances in program evaluation: Vol. 3 Evaluation and the post-modern dilemma (pp. 61–88). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
von Wright, G.H. (1971). Explanation and understanding. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Wolcott, H.F. (1990). On seeking — and rejecting — validity in qualitative research. In E.W. Eisner & A. Peshkin (Eds.), Qualitative inquiry in education: The continuing debate (pp. 121–152). New York: Teachers College Press.
Wolcott, H.F. (1994). Transforming qualitative data: Description, analysis, and interpretation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Wolcott, H.F. (1995). The art of fieldwork. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira.
Worthen, B.R., Sanders, J.R., & Fitzpatrick, J.L. (1997). Program evaluation: Alternative approaches and practical guidelines (2nd ed.). New York: Longman.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2003 Kluwer Academic Publishers
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mabry, L. (2003). In Living Color: Qualitative Methods in Educational Evaluation. In: Kellaghan, T., Stufflebeam, D.L. (eds) International Handbook of Educational Evaluation. Kluwer International Handbooks of Education, vol 9. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0309-4_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0309-4_12
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-0849-8
Online ISBN: 978-94-010-0309-4
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive