ABSTRACT
Before I begin I should say that this is not a ‘How to do it’ chapter. My intention is not to offer a framework or recipe for evaluation but to explore some issues about how the quality of PSE and pastoral care might be judged. The emphasis is on the process of delineating criteria and deciding what kind of evidence it would be appropriate to collect. I have no interest in making dogmatic statements about what I think should count as good practice because I prefer, for the purposes of this chapter, to explore the value pluralism that characterizes this area, as it does all areas of education. By remaining agnostic, as it were, I hope to show just how important are the decisions that need to be made by stakeholders about what constitutes quality in PSE and pastoral care and how debate about, and development of, success criteria are a vital part of any evaluation – perhaps the most vital. It is in this process that the questions of what is of value, what is worthwhile and what is good practice are addressed. After all, it is this act of valuing that distinguishes evaluation from research which sometimes aspires to be value-neutral.
