ABSTRACT
As with the engineering approach, a variety of types of research fit under this heading, including ethnographic and evaluative work. Parlett and Hamilton, for example, wrote a famous paper in 1972 entitled ‘Evaluation as illumination’ which set out a new approach to evaluative research, and triggered a shift away from the engineering model. Instead Parlett and Hamilton advocated adopting an ‘anthropological’ research approach, in which the programme being evaluated, including its rationale, operation, achievements and difficulties, is studied intensively. A fuller understanding is achieved by studying the subject intensively and in context.
