Editorial: Participatory research and evaluation approaches in developing contexts: reviewing evidence on professional practice and capacity development

Abstract

We embarked on the development of this special issue with a clear intention to curate a collection of articles for Educational Assessment Evaluation and Accountability (EAEA) and to capture the current theory, practice and debates associated with participatory evaluation and research in developing contexts. This special issue coincides with a growing international and national interest in participatory methods for research, evaluation and policy implementation. However, like many others, we remain concerned that across many contexts ‘participation’ constitutes little more than a oneoff consultation along with an exclusion from decision-making processes. We firmly believe, rooted in the evidence presented in this issue and beyond, that participatory processes must be continuous from the onset and consider the personal and collective experience of participants. The discussions and debates that have inspired this special issue arose from our longstanding professional collaboration on participatory approaches. Our partnership has centred on applying these methodologies in collaboration with community practitioners, policy decision-makers and academic researchers. With this in mind, we introduce the overarching themes emerging from the three papers and two commentaries. In the first article, ‘The journey from rhetoric to reality: Participatory evaluation in a development context’, Choinard and Cousins provide a systematic review of 40 studies published over the past 16 years. The authors define participatory evaluation as the process of the co-production of evaluative knowledge derived from a partnership Educ Asse Eval Acc (2015) 27:1–3 DOI 10.1007/s11092-015-9217-6