Critical Perspectives on Educational Evaluation

Abstract

This article examines what a critically informed orientation to evaluation in formal and non-formal education settings entails. A substantial critique of the technical rationality pervading conventional approaches to evaluation in education is illuminated by comparing functionalist models (exemplified in competencybased education and behaviourist variations on that theme) with participatory approaches, and through a corollary account of the way system imperatives intrude on lifeworld values. However, the author argues that a commitment to critical evaluation in education calls for systematic engagement with conventional, mainstream initiatives as well as with alternative approaches. Some guiding principles, consistent with the emancipatory aims of a critical orientation, are identified in making the case for the feasibility and necessity of critical evaluation in education. Questions are raised about the efficacy of the continuing debate on quantitative versus qualitative methods and the effects on critical evaluation of postmodern discourse.