Testing the participatory education evaluation concept in a national context

The article focuses on the realisation of participatory evaluation (PE) in national educational evaluation activity. The realisation of PE is examined by adapting the Daigneault and Jacob model (2009; originally Cousins & Whitmore, 1998) to five national-level educational evaluations carried out in Finland. According to the chosen frame of reference, self-evaluation regarding the realisation of these five evaluations as well as the analysis of reports that are yielded from the evaluations is used as the research method. PE was realised at a general level in the Finnish national level educational evaluations, but during the process there were considerable differences between the separate dimensions of PE. The article ends in two conclusions, which are presented as alternative scenarios.

► In the article the realisation of PE was tested in the national educational evaluations. ► In these evaluations the technical properties of PE are emphasised. ► The comprehensive realisation of PE requires the balancing of its dimensions.