Demystifying Evaluation - (Social Research Association Shorts) by David Parsons (Paperback)

About the Book

Demystifying evaluation is an accessible introductory guide explaining the options open to evaluators and how to make appropriate choices of research methods and covering issues such as managing expectations of evaluation, quantitative and qualitative methods, engaging stakeholders and providing action-orientated approaches to help end-users.

Book Synopsis

Social research practitioners and others working in the public and voluntary sectors, in academia and consultancy are increasingly under pressure to provide policy-related evidence with limited resources and rising expectations. Demystifying evaluation is an accessible introductory guide setting the foundations for tackling those challenges, explaining the options open to evaluators, their merits and uses, and how to make appropriate choices of research methods. Drawing on his experience of policy and programme evaluations for the public sector and outside, David Parsons provides a practical roadmap cutting across different evaluation theories. He covers issues such as managing expectations of evaluation, using and mixing quantitative and qualitative methods, engaging stakeholders and providing action-orientated approaches to help end-users.

Review Quotes

"Adds to an astonishingly slim collection of works that seek to make evaluation widely accessible. Prof Parsons' contribution has enormous potential to assist in the relationships building needed between evaluators and the policy community to enhance evaluation and its use." J Bradley Cousins, University of Ottawa

About the Author

Prof David Parsons is a programme evaluator with over 30 years' experience of independent public policy analysis in the UK, Europe and internationally. He is also a Visiting Professor at Leeds Beckett University, and Principal Consultant at P&A Research and Consulting. He has previously held faculty posts at the Universities of Sussex and Cranfield, was an advisor to the National Economic Development Office (UK), Economic and Social Research Council (UK) and European Commission and a specialist associate to the UK Commission for Employment and Skills. He also leads the Social Research Association's programme in Advanced and Impact Evaluation, and has acted as advisor and trainer on evaluation methods to numerous publicly-funded bodies in the UK.