ABSTRACT
A central theme of this volume, and one well supported by the various contributors, is that much of the educational research that is carried out in developing countries is quantitative in nature, and dominated by assumptions characteristic of the positivist paradigm. Here it is also argued that much of this work is, itself, applied in nature and increasingly policy oriented. To a large extent this has been influenced by international development assistance agencies, and efforts to monitor the impact of prestigious, and expensive, educational development projects. As is the case elsewhere, evaluation has thus become a major concern for many policy makers, planners and researchers intent on ensuring the most cost-effective use of scarce resources in times of financial austerity (Lewin, 1991). Indeed, in the history of many developing country education systems it is not uncommon to see the evolution of ministry research and evaluation units from origins relating to specific project evaluation initiatives (see, for example, Guthrie and Martin, 1983).
