Using Qualitative Methods in Evaluation Research

Abstract

This article describes the ways in which qualitative methods have been viewed relative to evaluation research. The topics included in the bibliography cover a broad area including the changing climate in evaluation research, the philosophical and conceptual background behind this approach to research, actual evaluation efforts which employed qualitative methods, the use of various data gathering techniques, and how one "makes sense" of these data. It is hoped that the bibliography will serve as a resource to those who choose to use such procedures in their evaluation research as well as testimony to the feasibility and utility qualitative methods offers evaluation researchers and policy makers.