Sensible Matchmaking: Qualitative Research Design and the Program Evaluation Standards
Abstract In this article, a welcome move by educational evaluators away from positivistic models of research is discussed. This move reflects prior epistemological shifts in the social and physical sciences. Most important to qualitative researchers is the Standards' new focus on the human aspects of evaluation, validity, and meaning and a broadened definition of what constitutes legitimate data collection and data analysis techniques. The author acknowledges how evaluators have incorporated subjectivities into research design and qualified their absolute criterion of objective evaluation while spelling out clear guidelines for documentation of all stakeholder perspectives. This analysis is from the perspective of the author's experiences with both traditional and qualitative evaluation research projects.