Читать книгу An Introduction to Evaluation - Chris Fox - Страница 82

Central to the TOC approach, and more so to its ability to be tested and evaluated, are the assumptions. Often these are expected to be substantiated by evidence and in many cases by social analysis. However:

[O]ne potential problem is that Theories of Change can be based on weak and selective evidence bases and build in all kinds of assumptions about the world that are not sufficiently problematised. In this respect they can reinforce and mask the problem they purport to solve, creating a misleading sense of security about the level of critical analysis a programme has been subjected to. (Valters 2014: 4)

This lack of initial analysis will, in turn, affect theory-based evaluations that will be testing assumptions that were not sufficiently problematised and may not even hold as assumptions, let alone as basis for change. In these cases it is right to say that assumptions will be windmills and evaluators Don Quixotes.