Teaching Qualitative Methods in Evaluation Research Innovatively: Experiences from Two Seminars

In recent years, evaluation as a component of refining programs and documenting their impacts has gained momentum in political science and in policy making as well. Qualitative methods are commonly used in evaluations in order to explore specific facets of programs and to give voice to participants’ experiences. These methods provide information that can assist enhancing the quality of programs (formative evaluation) or to rearrange further programs (summative evaluation). From a didactical perspective evaluations are especially suitable for method training since they allow a practical application of qualitative methods (interviews, document analysis) in a research based setting. The paper presents experiences from two seminars in which the students developed and carried out qualitative evaluations of the European Union’s INTERREG III program in the EUREGIO region and of a family-policy project of a women’s NGO. The paper concludes with some considerations concerning the challenges and opportunities of evaluations for method training.