ABSTRACT
Cousins and Earl (1992) proposed a participatory model of program evaluation that they defined as ‘applied social research that involves a partnership between trained evaluation personnel and practice-based decision-makers, organization members with program responsibility, or people with a vital interest in the program’ (pp. 399-400). They identified three characteristics of participatory evaluation: (a) involvement of a relatively small number of stakeholders (primary users); (b) involvement of the primary users in problem formulation, instrument design or selection, data collection, analysis, interpretation, recommendations, and reporting; and (c) an interactive and coordinating role for the evaluator, with a broad understanding of technical support, training, and quality control, while recognizing that conducting the evaluation is a joint responsibility of some of the primary users. Cousins and Earl also noted that local context provides an important basis in determining the exact form of the participatory evaluation.
