Theory-Based Stakeholder Evaluation – applied. Competing Stakeholder Theories in the Quality Management of Primary Education

In the broader context of evaluation design, this paper examines and compares pros and cons of a theory-based approach to evaluation (TBE) with the Theory-Based Stakeholder evaluation (TSE) model, introduced by Morten Balle Hansen and Evert Vedung (Hansen and Vedung 2010). While most approaches to TBE construct one unitary theory of the program (Coryn et al. 2011), the TSE-model emphasizes the importance of keeping theories of diverse stakeholders apart.
This paper applies the TSE-model to an evaluation study conducted by the Danish Evaluation Institute (EVA) of the Danish system of quality reports, a municipal framework to monitor and evaluate the quality in compulsory education in Denmark (EVA 2011). The paper reanalyzes the qualitative and quantitative data of the evaluation study by applying the TSE-model. The purpose is to test and elaborate on the practical use of the TSE-model, as an alternative to traditional program theory evaluation.