In this article, we tell the story of our evaluation of an intergenerational storytelling program. The story offers our reflections on the evolution of our practice, from an initial evaluation approach of interpretive responsiveness to an ending framework of narrative for this evaluation. The paper is structured so that it reflects the interwoven quality of narrative, as we tell the story of the program within the story of our practice. We conclude with a discussion of several theoretical anchors for our premise that narrative can offer valuable contributions to program evaluation, along with important challenges such a framework poses for our craft.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Abma, T. (Ed.). (1999). Telling tales: On evaluation and narrative. Advances in Program Evaluation, 6.
2.
Barone, T. (2001). Science, art, and the predispositions of educational researchers. Educational Researcher, 30(7), 24-28.
3.
Barone, T., & Eisner, E. (1997). Arts-based educational research. In R. M. Jaegar (Ed.), Complementary methods for research in education (2nd ed., pp. 75-116). Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.
4.
Bruner, J. (1986). Actual minds, possible worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
5.
Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, M. (2000). Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
6.
Coffey, A., & Atkinson, P. (1996). Making sense of qualitative data. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
7.
Denzin, N. K. (1989). Interpretive interactionism. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
8.
Greene, J. C., & Abma, T. A. (Eds.). (2001). Responsive evaluation. New directions for evaluation (Vol. 92). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
9.
Karlsson, O. (2001). Critical dialogue: Its value and meaning. Evaluation, 7, 211-227.
10.
Kushner, S. (2000). Personalizing evaluation. London: Sage.
11.
Kvale, S. (1996). InterViews. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
12.
Lincoln, Y., Thorp, L., & Russon, C. (2002). The storied nature of agriculture and evaluation: A conversation. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Evaluation Association, Arlington, VA.
13.
MacNeil, C. (2002). The politics of narrative: Realizing, re-presenting, and re-authoring = re-form. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Evaluation Association, Arlington, VA.
14.
Mayer, R. A. (2001). Resisting the assault on science: The case for evidence-based reasoning in educational research. Educational Researcher, 30(7), 29-30.
15.
McCollum, E., & Callahan, J. (2002). Understanding changes in sense of self in a leadership development program: The narrative assessment interview. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Evaluation Association, Arlington, VA.
16.
Polkinghorne, D. (1997). Reporting qualitative research as practice. In W. G. Tierney & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Representation and the text: Re-framing the narrative voice (pp. 3-21). Albany, NY: Suny Press.
17.
Reprinted in Madaus, G. F., Scriven, M., & Stufflebeam, D. (Eds.). (1987). Evaluation models: Viewpoints on educational and human services evaluation. Boston: Kluwer-Nijhoff.
18.
Stake, R. (1995). The art of case study research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
19.
Van Maanen, J. (1988). Tales of the field: On writing ethnography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
