ABSTRACT
Since the mid-1960s, about the time of the publication of Scriven's Perspectives of Curriculum Evaluation (1976), the field of evaluation in education has begun to come into its own. In program evaluation in particular, significant advances have been made, led by scholars such as Eisner (1979), Stake (Stake & Easley, 1978), MacDonald and Walker (1974), House (1973), Apple (1974), Hamilton (Hamilton, Jenkins, King, MacDonald, & Parlett (1977), and Patton (1975). Within this growing field, it has become increasingly challenging for curriculum evaluators not only to become acquainted with the burgeoning literature, but also to be insightful in trying to understand the world-views from which approaches to evaluation have been propounded. Social studies evaluators have an added challenge for they find themselves in the midst of multiplicities: multiple understandings of evaluation approaches and multiple interpretations of social studies. The intent in this chapter is not to provide a compendium of evaluation models or of social studies evaluation reports, or a history of evaluation approaches in social studies education, but to begin to address the social studies evaluators’ challenge by attempting to disclose orientations toward evaluation.
