2. Determine which general strategic themes of qualitative
inquiry will guide the evaluation. Determine qualitative design strategies,
data collection options, and analysis approaches based on the evaluation’s
purpose.
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- Naturalistic inquiry: Determine the degree to
which it is possible and desirable to study the program as it unfolds
naturally and openly, that is, without a predetermined focus or preordinate
categories of analysis.
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- Emergent
design flexibility: Determine the extent to which it will
be possible to adapt the evaluation design and add additional elements
of data collection as understanding deepens and as the evaluation
unfolds. (Some evaluators and/or evaluation funders want to know in
advance exactly what data will be collected from whom in what time
frame; other designs are more open and emergent.)
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- Purposeful sampling: Determine what purposeful
sampling strategy (or strategies) will be used for the evaluation.
Pick cases for study (e.g., program participants, staff, organizations,
communities, cultures, events, critical incidences) that are "information
rich" and illuminative, that is, that will provide appropriate
data given the evaluation’s purpose. (Sampling is aimed at generating
insights into key evaluation issues and program effectiveness, not
empirical generalization from a sample to a population. Specific purposeful
sampling options are listed later in this checklist.)
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- Focus on priorities: Determine what elements or
aspects of program processes and
outcomes will be studied qualitatively in the evaluation.
- Decide what evaluation questions lend themselves to qualitative
inquiry, for example, questions concerning what outcomes mean
to participants rather than how much of an outcome was attained.
- Determine what program observations will yield detailed, thick
descriptions that
illuminate evaluation questions.
Determine what interviews will be needed to capture participants’
perspectives and experiences.
- Identify documents
that will be reviewed and analyzed.
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- Holistic perspective: Determine the extent to which
the final evaluation report will describe and examine the whole
program being evaluated.
- Decide if the purpose is to understand the program as a complex
system that is more than the sum of its parts.
- Decide how important it will be to capture and examine complex
interdependencies and system dynamics that cannot meaningfully
be portrayed through a few discrete variables and linear, cause-effect
relationships.
- Determine how important it will be to place findings in a social,
historical, and temporal context.
- Determine what comparisons will be made or if the program will
be evaluated as a case unto itself.
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- Voice and perspective: Determine what perspective
the qualitative evaluator will bring to the evaluation.
- Determine what evaluator stance will be credible. How will the
evaluator conduct fieldwork and interviews and analyze data in
a way that conveys authenticity and trustworthiness?
- Determine how balance will be achieved and communicated given
the qualitative nature of the evaluation and concerns about perspective
that often accompany qualitative inquiry.
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