Oral History Narratives as the Basis for Constructing a Federal Grants Program Theory

• In Event: Roundtable Session 61
  In Roundtable Session: Research on Evaluation Tools and Trends

Abstract

The research context was evaluation - designing a meaningful evaluation of a federal competitive grants program. The research was a single-case study of the Higher Education Challenge (HEC) grants program. The premise was that a good evaluation begins with explicating the program’s essential conceptual underpinnings, i.e. the program theory. The goal was to conduct oral history interviews with the HEC developers to depict historical context and a rationale for the way this program was structured. Four individuals were interviewed. Utilizing narrative analysis, six program’s ‘intentionalities’ were identified. These intentionalities were used to describe the HEC’s program theory and map eight chains of positive consequences to explain how this program was intended to bring about its effects and inform its evaluation.

Author

• Elena Yu Polush, Ball State University