Ian Shaw shows how evaluation practice can utilize qualitative approaches to gain an understanding that more traditional quantitative approaches may fail to do. Three broad sections include discussions of: the foundations of evaluation and recent trends; evaluation and action programmes and policies; and the practice of evaluation.

Encountering Qualitative Evaluation
Evaluation Theorists and Qualitative Evaluation
Persuasions and Persuaders
Evidence from Qualitative Evaluation
Values, Validity and the Uses of Evaluation
Evaluating Programmes and Policies
Practitioner Evaluation
Decisions for Evaluation Design
Evaluation in the Field
Analysis
Establishing Evaluative Claims

Dr. Ian Shaw is S R Nathan Professor of Social Work at National University of Singapore and Professor Emeritus at the University of York, England. He was the first chair of the European Social Work Research Association (ESWRA) and a founder editor of the journal Qualitative Social Work. He has authored almost 100 peer-reviewed papers, more than 20 books, 60 book chapters, and various research reports. He has written extensively in the journals on issues arising from the relationship between social work and sociology over the last century. His more recent books include Social Work Science (2016) and Research and the Social Work Picture (2018). He is pursuing a graduate programme in creative writing, which sits alongside his interests in gardening, his local church, volunteering in his village shop, playing badminton (badly), and Bob Dylan.