Searching for Unintended Effects: Using Mixed Methods to Seize the Benefits of Goal-Free Evaluation

• In Event: 16.057 - Roundtable Session 5
  In Roundtable Session: 16.057-10 - Mixed-Methods Frameworks and Applications

Abstract

A goal free approach to a mixed methods evaluation was employed to meet the exploratory nature of the investigation and to remain open to the myriad of possibilities within the Coastal Roots program as it exists today, with a special focus on participant goals and unanticipated effects. Goal free evaluation is complicated by a difficulty to focus and direct exploration – an issue addressed and mended here by the use of a mixed methods design. The iterative sequential design employed qualitative methods in the early stages of the project through the collection and analysis of interview data, a survey instrument developed from these themes, and a second qualitative case study exploration of emerging quantitative themes.

Author

• Jenna Michelle LaChenaye, The University of Alabama - Birmingham