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Global challenges in practice: designing a development intervention
Global challenges in practice: designing a development intervention

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4 Quantitative versus qualitative methods of evaluation

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Figure 3 Qualitative research methods

For evaluation to be rich and enlightening and to challenge current development practice, you need to look beyond quantitative methods to qualitative methods.

Quantitative methods for research and evaluation lie firmly within the ‘scientific tradition’; the idea that there is a single truth out there, if only we can find the right way to discover it.

In contrast, qualitative methods are underpinned by different philosophical traditions. At their core is the idea of subjectivity – that reality is not comprised of a single truth, but is experienced through our individual perceptions, experiences, values and feelings giving rise to subjectivity. There are a wide array of qualitative evaluation and research methods, and more are being developed all the time.