3. Situating a Critical Review of Impact Evaluations Within the Political Economy of Global Education Reform: Definition and Method

This chapter addresses issues of definition and method. The first section takes on the challenge of defining what it means to conduct a critical review of impact evaluations within the political economy of global education reform. As discussed, one must go beyond a critical evaluation of the findings of impact evaluations and beyond a critical appraisal of the production of impact evaluations to also consider the role that impact evaluations play, once produced, in the field of global education policy. Considering this role means examining their influence at the level of policymaking processes, organizational agendas, personal careers, and discursive context, among others. The latter sections of this chapter suggest methods that can be used to put this approach to critical review into practice. The specifics of how these methods were employed in the policy case from El Salvador (the focus of Chaps. 4, 5, and 6) are also detailed.