The Influence of Evaluation on Changing Management Systems in Educational Institutions

Abstract

This article compares the influence of evaluation in two different public education contexts. One evaluation was knowledge-focused, with the evaluators acting as external judges in a context of top-down changes at post-implementation stage in infant and primary schools. The other was development-focused from a constructivist perspective in a context of bottom-up changes during the building of a shared model in a university administration department. The effects of the former were limited to the impact of disseminating scientific information. The latter evaluation had several effects, many of them indirect and diffuse. The main source of influence was participative discussion about evaluation procedures and their results. The advisability of participative evaluation to support system changes and model construction is discussed. The authors also suggest that the concept of influence be considered in the broad sense so different types of influence (multidirectional, indirect, unintended, non-instrumental) can be included as an evaluation impact.