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In Parts Three and Four, the core of the book, we describe how to plan and
carry out an evaluation study. Part Three is concerned with the planning stage:
learning about the program, conversing with stakeholders to learn purposes and
consider future uses of the study, and identifying and finalizing evaluation
questions to guide the study. Part Three teaches the reader how to develop an eval-
uation plan and a management plan, including timelines and budgets for conduct-
ing the study. In Part Four, we discuss the methodological choices and decisions
evaluators make: selecting and developing designs; sampling, data collection, and
analysis strategies; interpreting results; and communicating results to others. The
chapters in each of these sections are sequential, representing the order in which
decisions are made or actions are taken in the evaluation study. We make use of
extensive graphics, lists, and examples to illustrate practice to the reader.
This Revision
Each chapter has been revised by considering the most current books, articles, and
reports. Many new references and contemporary examples have been added.
Thus, readers are introduced to current controversies about randomized control
groups and appropriate designs for outcome evaluations, current discussions of
political influences on evaluation policies and practices, research on participative
approaches, discussions of cultural competency and capacity building in organiza-
tions, and new models of evaluation use and views on interpreting and dissemi-
nating results.
We are unabashedly eclectic in our approach to evaluation. We use many
different approaches and methods––whatever is appropriate for the setting––and
encourage you to do the same. We don’t advocate one approach, but instruct you
in many. You will learn about different approaches or theories in Part Two and
different methods of collecting data in Parts Three and Four.
To facilitate learning, we have continued with much the same pedagogical
structure that we have used in past editions. Each chapter presents information on
current and foundational issues in a practical, accessible manner. Tables and
figures are used frequently to summarize or illustrate key points. Each chapter
begins with Orienting Questions to introduce the reader to some of the issues that
will be covered in the chapter and concludes with a list of the Major Concepts and
Theories reviewed in the chapter, Discussion Questions, Application Exercises,
and a list of Suggested Readings on the topics discussed.
Rather than using the case study method from previous editions, we thought
it was time to introduce readers to some real evaluations. Fortunately, while
Blaine Worthen was editor of American Journal of Evaluation, Jody Fitzpatrick wrote
a column in which she interviewed evaluators about a single evaluation they had
conducted. These interviews are now widely used in teaching about evaluation.
We have incorporated them into this new edition by recommending the ones that
illustrate the themes introduced in each chapter. Readers and instructors can
choose either to purchase the book, Evaluation in Action (Fitzpatrick, Christie, &
Mark, 2009), as a case companion to this text or to access many of the interviews
Preface vii
through their original publication in the American Journal of Evaluation. At the end
of each chapter, we describe one to three relevant interviews, citing the chapter in
the book and the original source in the journal.
We hope this book will inspire you to think in a new way about issues—in a
questioning, exploring, evaluative way—and about programs, policy, and organi-
zational change. For those readers who are already evaluators, this book will pro-
vide you with new perspectives and tools for your practice. For those who are new
to evaluation, this book will make you a more informed consumer of or participant
in evaluation studies or, perhaps, guide you to undertake your own evaluation.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank our colleagues in evaluation for continuing to make this
such an exciting and dynamic field! Our work in each revision of our text has
reminded us of the progress being made in evaluation and the wonderful insights
of our colleagues about evaluation theory and practice. We would also like to
thank Sophia Le, our research assistant, who has worked tirelessly, creatively, and
diligently to bring this manuscript to fruition. We all are grateful to our families
for the interest and pride they have shown in our work and the patience and love
they have demonstrated as we have taken the time to devote to it.
viii Preface
Contents
PART ONE • Introduction to Evaluation 1
1 Evaluation’s Basic Purpose, Uses,
and Conceptual Distinctions 3
Informal versus Formal Evaluation 5
A Brief Definition of Evaluation and Other Key Terms 6
Differences in Evaluation and Research 9
The Purposes of Evaluation 13
Roles and Activities of Professional Evaluators 16
Uses and Objects of Evaluation 18
Some Basic Types of Evaluation 20
Evaluation’s Importance—and Its Limitations 32
2 Origins and Current Trends in Modern
Program Evaluation 38
The History and Influence of Evaluation in Society 38
1990–The Present: History and Current Trends 49
3 Political, Interpersonal, and Ethical Issues
in Evaluation 64
Evaluation and Its Political Context 65
Maintaining Ethical Standards: Considerations,
Issues, and Responsibilities for Evaluators 78
ix
PART TWO • Alternative Approaches to Program Evaluation 109
4 Alternative Views of Evaluation 111
Diverse Conceptions of Program Evaluation 113
Origins of Alternative Views of Evaluation 114
Classifications of Evaluation Theories or
Approaches 120
5 First Approaches: Expertise and Consumer-Oriented
Approaches 126
The Expertise-Oriented Approach 127
The Consumer-Oriented Evaluation Approach 143
6 Program-Oriented Evaluation Approaches 153
The Objectives-Oriented Evaluation Approach 154
Logic Models and Theory-Based Evaluation Approaches 159
How Program-Oriented Evaluation Approaches Have Been
Used 164
Strengths and Limitations of Program-Oriented Evaluation
Approaches 166
Goal-Free Evaluation 168
7 Decision-Oriented Evaluation Approaches 172
Developers of Decision-Oriented Evaluation Approaches
and Their Contributions 173
The Decision-Oriented Approaches 173
How the Decision-Oriented Evaluation Approaches
Have Been Used 184
Strengths and Limitations of Decision-Oriented Evaluation
Approaches 184
x Contents
8 Participant-Oriented Evaluation Approaches 189
Evolution of Participatory Approaches 190
Developers of Participant-Oriented Evaluation
Approaches and Their Contributions 191
Participatory Evaluation Today: Two Streams and Many Approaches 199
Some Specific Contemporary Approaches 205
How Participant-Oriented Evaluation Approaches Have Been Used 220
Strengths and Limitations of Participant-Oriented
Evaluation Approaches 223
9 Other Current Considerations: Cultural Competence
and Capacity Building 231
The Role of Culture and Context in Evaluation Practice
and Developing Cultural Competence 232
Evaluation’s Roles in Organizations: Evaluation Capacity
Building and Mainstreaming Evaluation 235
10 A Comparative Analysis of Approaches 243
A Summary and Comparative Analysis of Evaluation Approaches 243
Cautions About the Alternative Evaluation Approaches 244
Contributions of the Alternative Evaluation Approaches 248
Comparative Analysis of Characteristics of Alternative
Evaluation Approaches 249
Eclectic Uses of the Alternative Evaluation Approaches 251
PART THREE • Practical Guidelines for Planning Evaluations 257
11 Clarifying the Evaluation Request
and Responsibilities 259
Understanding the Reasons for Initiating the Evaluation 260
Conditions Under Which Evaluation Studies Are Inappropriate 265
Contents xi
Determining When an Evaluation Is Appropriate:
Evaluability Assessment 268
Using an Internal or External Evaluator 271
Hiring an Evaluator 277
How Different Evaluation Approaches Clarify the Evaluation Request
and Responsibilities 281
12 Setting Boundaries and Analyzing
the Evaluation Context 286
Identifying Stakeholders and Intended Audiences for
an Evaluation 287
Describing What Is to Be Evaluated: Setting the Boundaries 290
Analyzing the Resources and Capabilities That Can Be Committed
to the Evaluation 304
Analyzing the Political Context for the Evaluation 307
Variations Caused by the Evaluation Approach Used 309
Determining Whether to Proceed with the Evaluation 310
13 Identifying and Selecting the Evaluation Questions
and Criteria 314
Identifying Useful Sources for Evaluation Questions:
The Divergent Phase 315
Selecting the Questions, Criteria, and Issues to Be Addressed: The
Convergent Phase 328
Specifying the Evaluation Criteria and Standards 332
Remaining Flexible during the Evaluation: Allowing New Questions,
Criteria, and Standards to Emerge 336
14 Planning How to Conduct the Evaluation 340
Developing the Evaluation Plan 342
Specifying How the Evaluation Will Be Conducted:
The Management Plan 358
xii Contents
Establishing Evaluation Agreements and Contracts 367
Planning and Conducting the Metaevaluation 368
PART FOUR • Practical Guidelines for Conducting
and Using Evaluations 379
15 Collecting Evaluative Information: Design, Sampling,
and Cost Choices 381
Using Mixed Methods 383
Designs for Collecting Descriptive and Causal Information 387
Sampling 407
Cost Analysis 411
16 Collecting Evaluative Information: Data Sources
and Methods, Analysis, and Interpretation 418
Common Sources and Methods for Collecting Information 419
Planning and Organizing the Collection of Information 443
Analysis of Data and Interpretation of Findings 444
17 Reporting Evaluation Results: Maximizing
Use and Understanding 453
Purposes of Evaluation Reporting and Reports 454
Different Ways of Reporting 455
Important Factors in Planning Evaluation Reporting 456
Key Components of a Written Report 469
Suggestions for Effective Oral Reporting 476
A Checklist for Good Evaluation Reports 479
How Evaluation Information Is Used 479
Contents xiii
18 The Future of Evaluation 490
The Future of Evaluation 490
Predictions Concerning the Profession of Evaluation 491
Predictions Concerning the Practice of Evaluation 493
A Vision for Evaluation 496
Conclusion 497
Appendix A The Program Evaluation Standards
and Guiding Principles for Evaluators 499
References 505
Author Index 526
Subject Index 530
xiv Contents
I
Introduction
to Evaluation
Part
1
This initial section of our text provides the background necessary for the begin-
ning student to understand the chapters that follow. In it, we attempt to accom-
plish three things: to explore the concept of evaluation and its various meanings,
to review the history of program evaluation and its development as a discipline,
and to introduce the reader to some of the factors that influence the practice of
evaluation. We also acquaint the reader with some of the current controversies
and trends in the field.
In Chapter 1, we discuss the basic purposes of evaluation and the varying
roles evaluators play. We define evaluation specifically, and we introduce the
reader to several different concepts and distinctions that are important to evalua-
tion. In Chapter 2, we summarize the origins of today’s evaluation tenets and prac-
tices and the historical evolution of evaluation as a growing force in improving our
society’s public, nonprofit, and corporate programs. In Chapter 3, we discuss the
political, ethical, and interpersonal factors that underlie any evaluation and em-
phasize its distinction from research.
Our intent in Part One is to provide the reader with information essential to
understanding not only the content of the sections that follow but also the wealth
of material that exists in the literature on program evaluation. Although the con-
tent in the remainder of this book is intended to apply primarily to the evaluation
of programs, most of it also applies to the evaluation of policies, products, and
processes used in those areas and, indeed, to any object of an evaluation. In Part
Two we will introduce you to different approaches to evaluation to enlarge your
understanding of the diversity of choices that evaluators and stakeholders make
in undertaking evaluation.
This page intentionally left blank
Evaluation’s Basic Purpose,
Uses, and Conceptual
Distinctions
Orienting Questions
1. What is evaluation? Why is it important?
2. What is the difference between formal and informal evaluation?
3. What are some purposes of evaluation? What roles can the evaluator play?
4. What are the major differences between formative and summative evaluations?
5. What questions might an evaluator address in a needs assessment, a process
evaluation, and an outcome evaluation?
6. What are the advantages and disadvantages of an internal evaluator? An external
evaluator?
3
1
The challenges confronting our society in the twenty-first century are enormous.
Few of them are really new. In the United States and many other countries, the
public and nonprofit sectors are grappling with complex issues: educating children
for the new century; reducing functional illiteracy; strengthening families; train-
ing people to enter or return to the workforce; training employees who currently
work in an organization; combating disease and mental illness; fighting discrimi-
nation; and reducing crime, drug abuse, and child and spouse abuse. More
recently, pursuing and balancing environmental and economic goals and working
to ensure peace and economic growth in developing countries have become prominent
concerns. As this book is written, the United States and many countries around
4 Part I • Introduction to Evaluation
the world are facing challenging economic problems that touch every aspect of so-
ciety. The policies and programs created to address these problems will require
evaluation to determine which solutions to pursue and which programs and poli-
cies are working and which are not. Each new decade seems to add to the list of
challenges, as society and the problems it confronts become increasingly complex.
As society’s concern over these pervasive and perplexing problems has
intensified, so have its efforts to resolve them. Collectively, local, regional, national,
and international agencies have initiated many programs aimed at eliminating
these problems or their underlying causes. In some cases, specific programs judged
to have been ineffective have been “mothballed” or sunk outright, often to be
replaced by a new program designed to attack the problem in a different—and,
hopefully, more effective—manner.
In more recent years, scarce resources and budget deficits have posed still
more challenges as administrators and program managers have had to struggle to
keep their most promising programs afloat. Increasingly, policymakers and man-
agers have been faced with tough choices, being forced to cancel some programs
or program components to provide sufficient funds to start new programs, to con-
tinue others, or simply to keep within current budgetary limits.
To make such choices intelligently, policy makers need good information
about the relative effectiveness of programs. Which programs are working well?
Which are failing? What are the programs’ relative costs and benefits? Similarly,
each program manager needs to know how well different parts of programs are
working. What can be done to improve those parts of the program that are not
working as well as they should? Have all aspects of the program been thought
through carefully at the planning stage, or is more planning needed? What is the
theory or logic model for the program’s effectiveness? What adaptations would
make the program more effective?
Answering such questions is the major task of program evaluation. The ma-
jor task of this book is to introduce you to evaluation and the vital role it plays in
virtually every sector of modern society. However, before we can hope to convince
you that good evaluation is an essential part of good programs, we must help you
understand at least the basic concepts in each of the following areas:
• How we—and others—define evaluation
• How formal and informal evaluation differ
• The basic purposes—and various uses—of formal evaluation
• The distinction between basic types of evaluation
• The distinction between internal and external evaluators
• Evaluation’s importance and its limitations
Covering all of those areas thoroughly could fill a whole book, not just one
chapter of an introductory text. In this chapter, we provide only brief coverage of
each of these topics to orient you to concepts and distinctions necessary to under-
stand the content of later chapters.
Chapter 1 • Evaluation’s Basic Purpose, Uses, and Conceptual Distinctions 5
Informal versus Formal Evaluation
Evaluation is not a new concept. In fact, people have been evaluating, or examin-
ing and judging things, since the beginning of human history. Neanderthals prac-
ticed it when determining which types of saplings made the best spears, as did Persian
patriarchs in selecting the most suitable suitors for their daughters, and English
yeomen who abandoned their own crossbows in favor of the Welsh longbow. They
had observed that the longbow could send an arrow through the stoutest armor
and was capable of launching three arrows while the crossbow sent only one. Al-
though no formal evaluation reports on bow comparisons have been unearthed in
English archives, it is clear that the English evaluated the longbow’s value for their
purposes, deciding that its use would strengthen them in their struggles with the
French. So the English armies relinquished their crossbows, perfected and improved
on the Welsh longbow, and proved invincible during most of the Hundred Years’ War.
By contrast, French archers experimented briefly with the longbow, then went
back to the crossbow—and continued to lose battles. Such are the perils of poor
evaluation! Unfortunately, the faulty judgment that led the French to persist in us-
ing an inferior weapon represents an informal evaluation pattern that has been re-
peated too often throughout history.
As human beings, we evaluate every day. Practitioners, managers, and
policymakers make judgments about students, clients, personnel, programs, and
policies. These judgments lead to choices and decisions. They are a natural part of
life. A school principal observes a teacher working in the classroom and forms
some judgments about that teacher’s effectiveness. A program officer of a founda-
tion visits a substance abuse program and forms a judgment about the program’s
quality and effectiveness. A policymaker hears a speech about a new method for de-
livering health care to uninsured children and draws some conclusions about whether
that method would work in his state. Such judgments are made every day in our work.
These judgments, however, are based on informal, or unsystematic, evaluations.
Informal evaluations can result in faulty or wise judgments. But, they are
characterized by an absence of breadth and depth because they lack systematic
procedures and formally collected evidence. As humans, we are limited in making
judgments both by the lack of opportunity to observe many different settings,
clients, or students and by our own past experience, which both informs and bi-
ases our judgments. Informal evaluation does not occur in a vacuum. Experience,
instinct, generalization, and reasoning can all influence the outcome of informal
evaluations, and any or all of these may be the basis for sound, or faulty, judg-
ments. Did we see the teacher on a good day or a bad one? How did our past ex-
perience with similar students, course content, and methods influence our
judgment? When we conduct informal evaluations, we are less cognizant of these
limitations. However, when formal evaluations are not possible, informal evalua-
tion carried out by knowledgeable, experienced, and fair people can be very use-
ful indeed. It would be unrealistic to think any individual, group, or organization
could formally evaluate everything it does. Often informal evaluation is the only
6 Part I • Introduction to Evaluation
practical approach. (In choosing an entrée from a dinner menu, only the most
compulsive individual would conduct exit interviews with restaurant patrons to
gather data to guide that choice.)
Informal and formal evaluation, however, form a continuum. Schwandt
(2001a) acknowledges the importance and value of everyday judgments and argues
that evaluation is not simply about methods and rules. He sees the evaluator as
helping practitioners to “cultivate critical intelligence.” Evaluation, he notes, forms
a middle ground “between overreliance on and over-application of method, general
principles, and rules to making sense of ordinary life on one hand, and advocating
trust in personal inspiration and sheer intuition on the other” (p. 86). Mark,
Henry, and Julnes (2000) echo this concept when they describe evaluation as a
form of assisted sense-making. Evaluation, they observe, “has been developed to
assist and extend natural human abilities to observe, understand, and make judgments
about policies, programs, and other objects in evaluation” (p. 179).
Evaluation, then, is a basic form of human behavior. Sometimes it is thorough,
structured, and formal. More often it is impressionistic and private. Our focus is on
the more formal, structured, and public evaluation. We want to inform readers of
various approaches and methods for developing criteria and collecting information
about alternatives. For those readers who aspire to become professional evaluators,
we will be introducing you to the approaches and methods used in these formal
studies. For all readers, practitioners and evaluators, we hope to cultivate that
critical intelligence, to make you cognizant of the factors influencing your more
informal judgments and decisions.
A Brief Definition of Evaluation
and Other Key Terms
In the previous section, the perceptive reader will have noticed that the term
“evaluation” has been used rather broadly without definition beyond what was
implicit in context. But the rest of this chapter could be rather confusing if we did
not stop briefly to define the term more precisely. Intuitively, it may not seem dif-
ficult to define evaluation. For example, one typical dictionary definition of eval-
uation is “to determine or fix the value of: to examine and judge.” Seems quite
straightforward, doesn’t it? Yet among professional evaluators, there is no uni-
formly agreed-upon definition of precisely what the term “evaluation” means. In
fact, in considering the role of language in evaluation, Michael Scriven, one of the
founders of evaluation, for an essay on the use of language in evaluation recently
noted there are nearly 60 different terms for evaluation that apply to one context
or another. These include adjudge, appraise, analyze, assess, critique, examine,
grade, inspect, judge, rate, rank, review, score, study, test, and so on (cited in
Patton, 2000, p. 7). While all these terms may appear confusing, Scriven notes
that the variety of uses of the term evaluation “reflects not only the immense im-
portance of the process of evaluation in practical life, but the explosion of a new
area of study” (cited in Patton, 2000, p. 7). This chapter will introduce the reader
Chapter 1 • Evaluation’s Basic Purpose, Uses, and Conceptual Distinctions 7
to the array of variations in application, but, at this point, we will focus on one
definition that encompasses many others.
Early in the development of the field, Scriven (1967) defined evaluation as
judging the worth or merit of something. Many recent definitions encompass this
original definition of the term (Mark, Henry, & Julnes, 2000; Schwandt, 2008;
Scriven, 1991a; Stake, 2000a; Stufflebeam, 2001b). We concur that evaluation is de-
termining the worth or merit of an evaluation object (whatever is evaluated). More
broadly, we define evaluation as the identification, clarification, and application of
defensible criteria to determine an evaluation object’s value (worth or merit) in rela-
tion to those criteria. Note that this definition requires identifying and clarifying de-
fensible criteria. Often, in practice, our judgments of evaluation objects differ because
we have failed to identify and clarify the means that we, as individuals, use to judge
an object. One educator may value a reading curriculum because of the love it instills
for reading; another may disparage the program because it does not move the child
along as rapidly as other curricula in helping the student to recognize and interpret
letters, words, or meaning. These educators differ in the value they assign to the cur-
ricula because their criteria differ. One important role of an evaluator is to help stake-
holders articulate their criteria and to stimulate dialogue about them. Our definition,
then, emphasizes using those criteria to judge the merit or worth of the product.
Evaluation uses inquiry and judgment methods, including: (1) determining
the criteria and standards for judging quality and deciding whether those stan-
dards should be relative or absolute, (2) collecting relevant information, and
(3) applying the standards to determine value, quality, utility, effectiveness, or sig-
nificance. It leads to recommendations intended to optimize the evaluation object
in relation to its intended purpose(s) or to help stakeholders determine whether
the evaluation object is worthy of adoption, continuation, or expansion.
Programs, Policies, and Products
In the United States, we often use the term “program evaluation.” In Europe and
some other countries, however, evaluators often use the term “policy evaluation.”
This book is concerned with the evaluation of programs, policies, and products. We
are not, however, concerned with evaluating personnel or the performance of indi-
vidual people or employees. That is a different area, one more concerned with man-
agement and personnel.1 (See Joint Committee. [1988]) But, at this point, it would
be useful to briefly discuss what we mean by programs, policies, and products.
“Program” is a term that can be defined in many ways. In its simplest sense, a pro-
gram is a “standing arrangement that provides for a . . . service” (Cronbach et al., 1980,
p. 14). The Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation (1994) defined
program simply as “activities that are provided on a continuing basis” (p. 3). In their
1
The Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation has developed some standards for
personnel evaluation that may be of interest to readers involved in evaluating the performance of teach-
ers or other employees working in educational settings. These can be found at http://www.eval.org/
evaluationdocuments/perseval.html.
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
and by such treatment, at the end of a few hours, we have a mass
equally lifeless.
In their flower-vases, too, they show the most perfect knowledge of
contrasts. To any one of taste it is unnecessary to show how
inappropriate our gilt and often brilliantly colored; flower-vases are
for the objects they are to hold. By employing such receptacles, all
effects of color and pleasing contrasts are effectually ruined. The
Japanese flower-vase is often made of the roughest and coarsest
pottery, with rough patches of glaze and irregular contour; it is made
solid and heavy, with a good bottom, and is capable of holding a big
cherry branch without up-setting. Its very roughness shows off by
contrast the delicate flowers it holds. With just such rough material
as we use in the making of drain-tiles and molasses jugs, the
Japanese make the most fascinating and appropriate flower-vases;
but their potters are artists, and, alas! ours are not.
In this connection it is interesting to note that in our country, artists,
and others having artistic tastes, have always recognized the
importance of observing proper contrasts between flowers and their
holders, and until within a very few years have been forced, for want
of better receptacles, to arrange flowers in German pottery-mugs,
Chinese ginger-jars, and the like. Though these vessels were
certainly inappropriate enough, the flowers looked vastly prettier in
them than they ever could in the frightful wares designed expressly
to hold them, made by American and European manufacturers. What
a satire on our art industries,—a despairing resort to beer-mugs,
ginger-jars and blacking-pots, for suitable flower-vases! Who does
not recall, indeed cannot see to-day on the shelves of most
“crockery shops,” a hideous battalion of garish porcelain and
iniquitous parian vases, besides other multitudinous evidences of
utter [pg 305] ignorance as to what a flower-vase should be, in the
discordantly colored and decorated glass receptacles designed to
hold these daintiest bits of Nature's handiwork?
Besides the flower-vase made to stand on the floor, the Japanese
have others which are made to hang from a hook,—generally from
the post or partition that divides the tokonoma from its companion
recess, or sometimes from a corner-post. When a permanent
partition occurs in a room, it is quite proper to hang the vase from
the middle post. In all these cases it is hung midway between the
floor and the ceiling. These hanging flower-vases are infinite in form
and design, and are made of pottery, bronze, bamboo, or wood.
Those made of pottery and bronze may be in the form of simple
tubes; often, however, natural forms are represented,—such as
fishes, insects, sections of bamboo, and the like.
Fig. 294.—Hanging flower-holder of bamboo.
The Japanese are fond of ancient objects, and jars which have been
dug up are often mutilated, at least for the antiquarian, by having
rings inserted in their sides so that they may be hung up for flower-
holders.
A curious form of holder is made out of a rugged knot of wood. Any
quaint and abnormal growth of wood, in which an opening can be
made big enough to accommodate a section of bamboo to hold the
water, is used for a flower-vase. Such an object will be decorated
with tiny bronze ants, a silver spider's web with bronze spider, and
pearl wrought in the shape of a fungus. These and other singular
caprices are worked into and upon the wood as ornaments.
[pg 306]
A very favorite form of flower-holder is one made of bamboo. The
bamboo tube is worked in a variety of ways, by cutting out various
sections from the sides. Fig. 294 represents an odd, yet common
shape, arranged for cha-no-yu (tea-parties), and sketched at one of
these parties. The bamboo is an admirable receptacle for water, and
a section of it is used for this purpose in many forms of pottery and
bronze flower-holders.
Fig. 295.—Hanging flower-holder of basket-work.
[pg 307]
Rich brown-colored baskets are also favorite receptacles for flowers,
a segment of bamboo being used to hold the water. The
accompanying figure (fig. 295) is a sketch of a hanging basket, the
flowers having been arranged by a lover of the tea-ceremonies and
old pottery. Many of these baskets are quite old, and are highly
prized by the Japanese. At the street flower-fairs cheap and curious
devices are often seen for holding flower-pots. The annexed figure
(fig. 296) illustrates a form of bracket in which a thin irregular-
shaped slab of wood has attached to it a crooked branch of a tree,
upon the free ends of which wooden blocks are secured as shelves
upon which the flower-pots are to rest. A hole is made at the top so
that it may be hung against the wall, and little cleats are fastened
crosswise to hold long strips of stiff paper, upon which it is
customary to write stanzas of poetry. These objects are of the
cheapest description, can be got for a few pennies, and are bought
by the poorest classes.
Fig. 296.—Cheap bracket for flower-pots.
For flower-holders suspended from above, a common form is a
square wooden bucket, or one made out of pottery or bronze in
imitation of this form. Bamboo cut in horizontal forms is also used
for suspended flower-holders. Indeed, there seems to be no end of
curious objects used for this purpose,—a gourd, the semi-cylindrical
tile, sea-shells, as with us, and forms made in pottery or bronze in
imitation of these objects.
Quaint and odd-shaped flower-stands are made in the form of
buckets. The following figure (fig. 297) represents one [pg 308]
sketched at the National Exposition at Tokio in 1877. Its construction
was very ingenious; three staves of the low bucket were continued
upward to form portions of three small buckets above, and each of
these, in turn, contributed a stave to the single bucket that crowned
the whole. Another form, made by the same contributor thought not
so symmetrical, was quite as odd.
Fig. 297.—Curious combination of buckets for flowers.
Curious little braided-straw affairs are made to hold flowers, or
rather the bamboo segments in which the flowers are kept. These
are made in the form of insects, fishes, mushrooms, and other
natural objects. These are mentioned, not that they have a special
merit, but to illustrate the devices used| by the common people in
decorating their homes. Racks of wood richly lacquered are also
used, from which hanging flower-holders are suspended. These
objects are rarely seen now, and I have never chanced to see one in
use.
In the chapter on Interiors various forms of vases are shown in the
tokonoma.
My interest in Japanese homes was first aroused by wishing to know
precisely what use the Japanese made of a class of objects with
which I had been familiar in the Art Museums and private collections
at home; furthermore, a study of their houses led me to search for
those evidences of household decoration which might possibly
parallel the hanging baskets, corner [pg 309] brackets, and
especially ornaments made of birch bark, fungi, moss, shell-work,
and the like, with which our humbler homes are often garnished. It
was delightful to find that the Japanese were susceptible to the
charms embodied in these bits of Nature, and that they too used
them in similar decorative ways. At the outset, search for an object
aside from the bare rooms seemed fruitless enough. At first sight
these rooms appeared absolutely barren; in passing from one room
to another one got the idea that the house was to be let. Picture to
yourself a room with no fire-place and accompanying mantel,—that
shelf of shelves for the support of pretty objects; no windows with
their convenient interspaces for the suspension of pictures or
brackets; no table, rarely even cabinets, to hold bright-colored
bindings and curious bric-a-brac; no side-boards upon which to array
the rich pottery or glistening porcelain; no chairs, desks, or
bedsteads, and consequently no opportunity for the display of
elaborate carvings or rich cloth coverings. Indeed, one might well
wonder in what way this people displayed their pretty objects for
household decorations.
After studying the Japanese home for a while, however, one comes
to realize that display as such is out of the question with them, and
to recognize that a severe Quaker-like simplicity is really one of the
great charms of a Japanese room. Absolute cleanliness and
refinement, with very few objects in sight upon which the eye may
rest contentedly, are the main features in household adornment
which the Japanese strive after, and which they attain with a
simplicity and effectiveness that we can never hope to reach. Our
rooms seem to them like a curiosity shop, and “stuffy” to the last
degree. Such a maze of vases, pictures, plaques, bronzes, with
shelves, brackets, cabinets, and tables loaded down with bric-a-brac,
is quite enough to drive a Japanese frantic. We parade in the most
unreasoning manner every object of this nature in our possession;
and with the [pg 310] periodical recurrence of birthday and
Christmas holidays, and the consequent influx of new things, the
less pretty ones already on parade are banished to the chambers
above to make room for the new ones; and as these in turn get
crowded out they rise to the garret, there to be providentially broken
up by the children, or to be preserved for future antiquarians to
contemplate, and to ponder over the condition of art in this age. Our
walls are hung with large fish-plates which were intended to hold
food; heavy bronzes, which in a Japanese room are made to rest
solidly on the floor, and to hold great woody branches of the plum or
cherry with their wealth of blossoms, are with us often placed on
high shelves or perched in some perilous position over the door. The
ignorant display is more rarely seen of thrusting a piece of statuary
into the window, so that the neighbor across the way may see it;
when a silhouette, cut out of stiff pasteboard, would in this position
answer all the purposes so far as the inmates are concerned. How
often we destroy an artist's best efforts by exposing his picture
against some glaring fresco or distracting wall-paper! And still not
content with the accumulated misery of such a room, we allow the
upholsterer and furnisher to provide us with a gorgeously framed
mirror, from which we may have flashed back at us the contents of
the room reversed, or, more dreadful still, a reverberation of these
horrors through opposite reflecting surfaces,—a futile effort of
Nature to sicken us of the whole thing by endless repetition.24
That we in America are not exceptional in these matters of
questionable furnishing, one may learn by listening to an English
authority on this subject,—one who has done more than any other
writer in calling attention not only to violations of true taste in
household adornment, but who points out in a most rational way the
correct paths to follow, not only to avoid that [pg 311] which is
offensive and pretentious, but to arrive at better methods and truer
principles in matters of taste. We refer to Charles L. Eastlake and his
timely work entitled “Hints on Household Taste.” In his
animadversions on the commonplace taste shown in the furnishing
of English houses, he says “it pervades and vitiates the judgment by
which we are accustomed to select and approve the objects of
every-day use which we see around us. It crosses our path in the
Brussels carpet of our drawing-room; it is about our bed in the
shape of gaudy chintz; it compels us to rest on chairs, and to sit at
tables which are designed in accordance with the worst principles of
construction, and invested with shapes confessedly unpicturesque. It
sends us metal-work from Birmingham, which is as vulgar in form as
it is flimsy in execution. It decorates the finest modern porcelain
with the most objectionable character of ornament. It lines our walls
with silly representations of vegetable life, or with a mass of
uninteresting diaper. It bids us, in short, furnish our houses after the
same fashion as we dress ourselves,—and that is with no more
sense of real beauty than if art were a dead letter.” Let us contrast
our tastes in these matters with those of the Japanese, and perhaps
profit by the lesson.
In the previous chapters sufficient details have been given for one to
grasp the structural features of a Japanese room. Let us now
observe that the general tone and color of a Japanese apartment are
subdued. Its atmosphere is restful; and only after one has sat on the
mats for some time do the unostentatious fittings of the apartment
attract one's notice. The papers of the fusuma of neutral tints; the
plastered surfaces, when they occur equally tinted in similar tones,
warm browns and stone-colors predominating; the cedar-board
ceiling, with the rich color of that wood; the wood-work everywhere
modestly conspicuous, and always presenting the natural colors [pg
312] undefiled by the painter's miseries,—these all combine to
render the room quiet and refined to the last degree. The floor in
bright contrast is covered with its cool straw matting,—a uniform
bright surface set off by the rectangular black borders of the mats. It
is such an infinite comfort to find throughout the length and breadth
of that Empire the floors covered with the unobtrusive straw
matting. Monotonous some would think: yes, it has the monotony of
fresh air and of pure water. Such a room requires but little
adornment in the shape of extraneous objects; indeed, there are but
few places where such objects can be placed. But observe, that
while in our rooms one is at liberty to cover his wall with pictures
without the slightest regard to light or effect, the Japanese room has
a recess clean and free from the floor to the hooded partition that
spans it above, and this recess is placed at right angles to the source
of light; furthermor it is exalted as the place of highest honor in the
room—and here, and here alone, hangs the picture. Not a varnished
affair, to see which one has to perambulate the apartment with head
awry to get a vantage point of vision, but a picture which may be
seen in its proper light from any point of the room. In the tokonoma
there is usually but one picture exposed,—though, as we have seen,
this recess may be wide enough to accommodate a set of two or
three.
Fig. 298.—Framed picture, with supports.
Between the kamoi, or lintel, and the ceiling is a space say of
eighteen inches or more, according to the height of the room; and
here may sometimes be seen a long narrow [pg 313] picture,
framed in a narrow wood-border, or secured to a flat frame, which is
concealed by the paper or brocade that borders the picture. This
picture tips forward at a considerable angle, and is supported on two
iron hooks. In order that the edge of the frame may not be scarred
by the iron, it is customary to interpose triangular red-crape
cushions. A bamboo support is often substituted for the iron hooks,
as shown in the sketch (fig. 298). The picture may be a landscape,
or a spray of flowers; but more often it consists of a few Chinese
characters embodying some bit of poetry, moral precept, or
sentiment,—and usually the characters have been written by some
poet, scholar, or other distinguished man. The square wooden post
which comes in the middle of a partition between two corners of the
room may be adorned by a long, narrow, and thin strip of cedar the
width of the post, upon which is painted a picture of some kind. This
strip, instead of being of wood, may be of silk and brocade, like a
kake-mono, having only one kaze-obi hanging in the middle from
above. Cheap ones may be of straw, rush, or thin strips of bamboo.
This object, of whatever material, is called hashira kakushi,—literally
meaning “post-hide.” If of wood, both sides are decorated; so that
after one side has done duty for awhile the other side is exposed.
The wood is usually of dark cedar evenly grained, and the sketch is
painted directly on the wood. Fig. 299 shows both sides of one of
these strips.
Fig. 299.—Hashira kakushi.
[pg 314]
The decoration for these objects is very skilfully treated by the artist;
and while it might bother our artists to know what subject to select
for a picture on so awkward and limited surface, it offers no trouble
to the Japanese decorator. He simply takes a vertical slice out of
some good subject, as one might get a glimpse of Nature through a
slightly open door,—and imagination is left to supply the rest. These
objects find their way to our markets, but the bright color used in
their decoration show that they have been painted for the masses in
this country. The post upon which this kind of picture is hung, as
well as the toko-bashira, may also adorned with a hanging flower-
holder such as has already been described.
A Japanese may have a famous collection of pictures, yet these are
stowed away in his kura, with the exception of the one exposed in
the tokonoma. If he is a man of taste, he changes the picture from
time to time according to the season, the character of his guests, or
for special occasions. In one house where I was a guest for a few
days the picture was changed every day. A picture may do duty for a
few weeks or months, when it is carefully rolled up, stowed away in
its silk covering and box, and another one is unrolled. In this way a
picture never becomes monotonous. The listless and indifferent way
in which an American will often regard his own pictures when
showing them to a friend, indicates that his pictures have been so
long on his walls that they no longer arouse any attention or delight.
It is true, one never wearies in contemplating the work of the great
masters; but one should remember that all pictures are not
masterpieces, and that by constant exposure the effect of a picture
becomes seriously impaired. The way in which pictures with us are
crowded on the walls,—many of them of necessity in the worst
possible light, or no light at all when the windows are muffled with
heavy [pg 315] curtains,—shows that the main interest centres in
their embossed gilt frames, which are conspicuous in all lights. The
principle of constant exposure is certainly wrong; a good picture is
all the more enjoyable if it is not forever staring one in the face.
Who wants to contemplate a burning tropical sunset on a full
stomach, or a drizzling northern mist on an empty one? And yet
these are the experiences which we are often compelled to endure.
Why not modify our rooms, and have a bay or recess,—an alcove in
the best possible light,—in which one or two good pictures may be
properly hung, with fitting accompaniments in the way of a few
flowers, or a bit of pottery or bronze? We have never modified the
interior arrangement of our house in the slightest degree from the
time when it was shaped in the most economical way as a shelter in
which to eat, sleep, and die,—a rectangular kennel, with necessary
holes for light, and necessary holes to get in and out by. At the same
time, its inmates were saturated with a religion so austere and
sombre that the possession of a picture was for a long time looked
upon as savoring of worldliness and vanity, unless, indeed, the
subject suggested the other world by a vision of hexapodous angels,
or of the transient resting-place to that world in the guise of a
tombstone and willows, or an immediate departure thereto in the
shape of a death-bed scene.
Among the Japanese all collections of pottery and other bric-a-brac
are, in the same way as the pictures, carefully enclosed in brocade
bags and boxes, and stowed away to be unpacked only when
appreciative friends come to the house; and then the host enjoys
them with equal delight. Aside from the heightened enjoyment sure
to be evoked by the Japanese method, one is spared an infinite
amount of chagrin and misery in having an unsophisticated friend
become enthusiastic over the wrong thing, or mistake a rare etching
of Dante for a North American savage, or manifest a thrill of delight
[pg 316] over an object because he learns incidentally that its value
corresponds with his yearly grocery bill.
Nothing is more striking in a Japanese room than the harmonies and
contrasts between the colors of the various objects and the room
itself. Between the picture and the brocades with which it is
mounted, and the quiet and subdued color of the tokonoma in which
it is hung, there is always the most refined harmony, and such a
background for the delicious and healthy contrasts of color when a
spray of bright cherry blossoms enlivens the quiet tones of this
honored place! The general tone of the room sets off to perfection
the simplest spray of flowers, a quiet picture, a rough bit of pottery
or an old bronze; and at the same time a costly and magnificent
piece of gold lacquer blazes out like a gem from these simple
surroundings,—and yet the harmony is not disturbed.
It is an interesting fact that the efforts at harmonious and decorative
effects which have been made by famous artists and decorators in
this country and in England have been strongly imbued by the
Japanese spirit, and every success attained is a confirmation of the
correctness of Japanese taste. Wall-papers are now more quiet and
unobtrusive; the merit of simplicity and reserve where it belongs,
and a fitness everywhere, are becoming more widely recognized.
It is rare to see cabinets or conveniences for the display of bric-a-
brac in a Japanese house, though sometimes a lacquer-stand with a
few shelves may be seen,—and on this may be displayed a number
of objects consisting of ancient pottery, some stone implements, a
fossil, old coins, or a few water-worn fragments of rock brought from
China, and mounted on dark wood stands. The Japanese are great
collectors of autographs, coins, brocades, metal-work, and many
other groups of objects; but these are rarely exposed. In regard to
objects in the tokonoma, I have seen in different tokonoma,
variously displayed, [pg 317] natural fragments of quartz, crystal
spheres, curious water-worn stones, coral, old bronze, as well as the
customary vase for flowers or the incense-burner. These various
objects are usually, but not always, supported on a lacquer-stand. In
the chigai-dana I have also noticed the sword-rack, lacquer writing-
box, maki-mono, and books; and when I was guilty of the
impertinence of peeking into the cupboards, I have seen there a few
boxes containing pottery, pictures, and the like,—though, as before
remarked, such things are usually kept in the kura.
Fig. 300.—Writing-desk.
Besides the lacquer cabinets, there may be seen in the houses of the
higher class an article of furniture consisting of a few deep shelves,
with portions of the shelves closed, forming little cupboards. Such a
cabinet is used to hold writing-paper, toilet articles, trays for flowers,
and miscellaneous objects for use and ornament. These cases are
often beautifully lacquered.
The usual form of writing-desk consists of a low stool not over a foot
in height, with plain side-pieces or legs for support, sometimes
having shallow drawers; and this is about the only piece of furniture
that would parallel our table. The illustration (fig. 300) shows one of
these tables, upon which may be seen the paper, ink-stone, brush,
and brush-rest.
In the cities and large villages the people stand in constant fear of
conflagrations. Almost every month they are reminded of the
instability of the ground they rest upon by tremors and slight shocks,
which may be the precursors of destructive earthquakes, usually
accompanied by conflagrations [pg 318] infinitely more disastrous.
Allusion has been made to the little portable engines with which
houses are furnished. In the city house one may notice a little
platform or staging with hand-rail erected on the ridge of the roof
(fig. 301); a ladder or flight of steps leads to this staging, and on
alarms of fire anxious faces may be seen peering from these
lookouts in the direction of the burning buildings. It is usual to have
resting on the platform a huge bucket or half barrel filled with water,
and near by a long-handled brush; and this is used to sprinkle water
on places threatened by the sparks and fire-brands, which often fill
the air in times of great conflagrations.
Fig. 301.—Staging on house-roof, with bucket and brush.
During the prevalence of a high wind it is a common sight to see the
small dealers packing their goods in large baskets and square cloths
to tie up ready to transport in case of fire. At such times the
windows and doors of the kura are closed and the chinks plastered
with mud, which is always at hand either under a platform near the
door or in a large earthen jar near the openings. In private
dwellings, too, at times of possible danger, the more precious
objects are packed up in a [pg 319] square basket-like box, having
straps attached to it, so that it can easily be transported on one's
shoulders (fig. 302).
Fig. 302.—Box for transporting articles.
In drawing to a close this description of Japanese homes and their
surroundings, I have to regret that neither time, strength, nor
opportunity enabled me to make it more complete by a description,
accompanied by sketches, of the residences of the highest classes in
Japan. Indeed, it is a question whether any of the old residences of
the Daimios remain in the condition in which they were twenty years
ago, or before the Revolution. Even where the buildings remain, as
in the castles of Nagoya and Kumamoto, busy clerks and secretaries
are seen sitting in chairs and writing at tables in foreign style; and
though in some cases the beautifully decorated fusuma, with the
elaborately carved ramma and rich wood-ceiling are still preserved,—
as in the castle of Nagoya, as well as in many others doubtless,—the
introduction of varnished furniture and gaudy-colored foreign carpets
in some of the apartments has brought sad discord into the former
harmonies of the place.
In Tokio a number of former Daimios have built houses in foreign
style, though these somehow or other usually lack the peculiar
comforts of our homes. Why a Japanese should build a house in
foreign style was somewhat of a puzzle to me, until I saw the
character of their homes and the manner in which a foreigner in
some cases was likely to behave on entering a Japanese house. If he
did not walk into it with his boots on, he was sure to be seen
stalking about in his stockinged [pg 320] feet, bumping his head at
intervals against the kamoi, or burning holes in the mats in his
clumsy attempts to pick up coals from the hibachi, with which to
light his cigar. Not being able to sit on the mats properly, he sprawls
about in attitudes confessedly as rude as if a Japanese in our
apartments were to perch his legs on the table. If he will not take off
his boots, he possibly finds his way to the garden, where he wanders
about, indenting the paths with his boot-heels or leaving scars on
the verandah, possibly washing his hands in the chōdzu-bachi, and
generally making himself the cause of much discomfort to the
inmates.
It was a happy idea when those Japanese who from their
prominence in the affairs of the country were compelled to entertain
the “foreign barbarian” conceived the idea of erecting a cage in
foreign fashion to hold temporarily the menageries which they were
often compelled to receive. Seriously, however, the inelastic
character of most foreigners, and their inability to adapt themselves
to their surroundings have rendered the erection of buildings in
foreign style for their entertainment not only a convenience but an
absolute necessity. It must be admitted that for the activities of
business especially, the foreign style of office and shop is not only
more convenient but unquestionably superior.
The former Daimio of Chikuzen was one of the first, I believe, to
build a house in foreign style in Tokio, and this building is a good
typical example of an American two-story house. Attached, however,
to this house is a wing containing a number of rooms in native style.
Fig. 123 (page 142) shows one of these rooms. The former Daimio
of Hizen also lives in a foreign house, and there are many houses in
Tokio built by Japanese after foreign plans.
In an earlier portion of this work an allusion was made to the
absence of those architectural monuments which are so [pg 321]
characteristic of European countries. The castles of the Daimios,
which are lofty and imposing structures, have already been referred
to. There are fortresses also of great extent and solidity,—notably
the one at Osaka, erected by Hideyoshi on an eminence near the
city; and though the wooden structures formerly surmounting the
walls were destroyed by Iyeyasŭ in 1615, the stone battlements as
they stand to-day must be considered as among the marvels of
engineering skill, and the colossal masses of rock seem all the more
colossal after one has become familiar with the tiny and perishable
dwellings of the country. In the walls of this fortress are single
blocks of stone—at great heights, too, above the surrounding level
of the region—measuring in some cases from thirty to thirty-six feet
in length, and at least fifteen feet in height. These huge blocks have
been transported long distances from the mountains many miles
away from the city.
Attention is called to the existence of these remarkable monuments
as an evidence that the Japanese are quite competent to erect such
buildings, if the national taste had inclined them in that way. So far
as I know, a national impulse has never led the Japanese to
commemorate great deeds in the nation's life by enduring
monuments of stone. The reason may be that the plucky little nation
has always been successful in repelling invasion; and a peculiar
quality in their temperament has prevented them from perpetuating
in a public way, either by monuments or by the naming of streets
and bridges, the memories of victories won by one section of the
country over another.
Rev. W. E. Griffis, in an interesting article on “The Streets and Street-
names of Yedo,”25
in noticing the almost total absence of the names
of great victories or historic battlefields in the naming of the streets
and bridges in Tokio, says: “It [pg 322] would have been an unwise
policy in the great unifier of Japan, Iyeyasŭ, to have given to the
streets in the capital of a nation finally united in peaceful union any
name that would be a constant source of humiliation, that would
keep alive bitter memories, or that would irritate freshly-healed
wounds. The anomalous absence of such names proves at once the
sagacity of Iyeyasŭ, and is another witness to the oft-repeated policy
used by the Japanese in treating their enemies,—that is, conquer
them by kindness and conciliation.”
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  • 1. (eBook PDF) Program Evaluation Alternative Approaches Practical Guidelines 4th download https://ebookluna.com/product/ebook-pdf-program-evaluation- alternative-approaches-practical-guidelines-4th/ Download full version ebook from https://ebookluna.com
  • 2. We believe these products will be a great fit for you. Click the link to download now, or visit ebookluna.com to discover even more! (eBook PDF) Handbook of Practical Program Evaluation 4th Edition https://ebookluna.com/product/ebook-pdf-handbook-of-practical-program- evaluation-4th-edition/ (eBook PDF) Practical Program Evaluation: Theory-Driven Evaluation and the Integrated Evaluation Perspective 2nd Edition https://ebookluna.com/product/ebook-pdf-practical-program-evaluation- theory-driven-evaluation-and-the-integrated-evaluation-perspective-2nd- edition/ (eBook PDF) Program Evaluation: Embedding Evaluation into Program Design and Development https://ebookluna.com/product/ebook-pdf-program-evaluation-embedding- evaluation-into-program-design-and-development/ (eBook PDF) Program Evaluation Theory and Practice First Edition: A Comprehensive Guide https://ebookluna.com/product/ebook-pdf-program-evaluation-theory-and- practice-first-edition-a-comprehensive-guide/
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  • 6. In Parts Three and Four, the core of the book, we describe how to plan and carry out an evaluation study. Part Three is concerned with the planning stage: learning about the program, conversing with stakeholders to learn purposes and consider future uses of the study, and identifying and finalizing evaluation questions to guide the study. Part Three teaches the reader how to develop an eval- uation plan and a management plan, including timelines and budgets for conduct- ing the study. In Part Four, we discuss the methodological choices and decisions evaluators make: selecting and developing designs; sampling, data collection, and analysis strategies; interpreting results; and communicating results to others. The chapters in each of these sections are sequential, representing the order in which decisions are made or actions are taken in the evaluation study. We make use of extensive graphics, lists, and examples to illustrate practice to the reader. This Revision Each chapter has been revised by considering the most current books, articles, and reports. Many new references and contemporary examples have been added. Thus, readers are introduced to current controversies about randomized control groups and appropriate designs for outcome evaluations, current discussions of political influences on evaluation policies and practices, research on participative approaches, discussions of cultural competency and capacity building in organiza- tions, and new models of evaluation use and views on interpreting and dissemi- nating results. We are unabashedly eclectic in our approach to evaluation. We use many different approaches and methods––whatever is appropriate for the setting––and encourage you to do the same. We don’t advocate one approach, but instruct you in many. You will learn about different approaches or theories in Part Two and different methods of collecting data in Parts Three and Four. To facilitate learning, we have continued with much the same pedagogical structure that we have used in past editions. Each chapter presents information on current and foundational issues in a practical, accessible manner. Tables and figures are used frequently to summarize or illustrate key points. Each chapter begins with Orienting Questions to introduce the reader to some of the issues that will be covered in the chapter and concludes with a list of the Major Concepts and Theories reviewed in the chapter, Discussion Questions, Application Exercises, and a list of Suggested Readings on the topics discussed. Rather than using the case study method from previous editions, we thought it was time to introduce readers to some real evaluations. Fortunately, while Blaine Worthen was editor of American Journal of Evaluation, Jody Fitzpatrick wrote a column in which she interviewed evaluators about a single evaluation they had conducted. These interviews are now widely used in teaching about evaluation. We have incorporated them into this new edition by recommending the ones that illustrate the themes introduced in each chapter. Readers and instructors can choose either to purchase the book, Evaluation in Action (Fitzpatrick, Christie, & Mark, 2009), as a case companion to this text or to access many of the interviews Preface vii
  • 7. through their original publication in the American Journal of Evaluation. At the end of each chapter, we describe one to three relevant interviews, citing the chapter in the book and the original source in the journal. We hope this book will inspire you to think in a new way about issues—in a questioning, exploring, evaluative way—and about programs, policy, and organi- zational change. For those readers who are already evaluators, this book will pro- vide you with new perspectives and tools for your practice. For those who are new to evaluation, this book will make you a more informed consumer of or participant in evaluation studies or, perhaps, guide you to undertake your own evaluation. Acknowledgments We would like to thank our colleagues in evaluation for continuing to make this such an exciting and dynamic field! Our work in each revision of our text has reminded us of the progress being made in evaluation and the wonderful insights of our colleagues about evaluation theory and practice. We would also like to thank Sophia Le, our research assistant, who has worked tirelessly, creatively, and diligently to bring this manuscript to fruition. We all are grateful to our families for the interest and pride they have shown in our work and the patience and love they have demonstrated as we have taken the time to devote to it. viii Preface
  • 8. Contents PART ONE • Introduction to Evaluation 1 1 Evaluation’s Basic Purpose, Uses, and Conceptual Distinctions 3 Informal versus Formal Evaluation 5 A Brief Definition of Evaluation and Other Key Terms 6 Differences in Evaluation and Research 9 The Purposes of Evaluation 13 Roles and Activities of Professional Evaluators 16 Uses and Objects of Evaluation 18 Some Basic Types of Evaluation 20 Evaluation’s Importance—and Its Limitations 32 2 Origins and Current Trends in Modern Program Evaluation 38 The History and Influence of Evaluation in Society 38 1990–The Present: History and Current Trends 49 3 Political, Interpersonal, and Ethical Issues in Evaluation 64 Evaluation and Its Political Context 65 Maintaining Ethical Standards: Considerations, Issues, and Responsibilities for Evaluators 78 ix
  • 9. PART TWO • Alternative Approaches to Program Evaluation 109 4 Alternative Views of Evaluation 111 Diverse Conceptions of Program Evaluation 113 Origins of Alternative Views of Evaluation 114 Classifications of Evaluation Theories or Approaches 120 5 First Approaches: Expertise and Consumer-Oriented Approaches 126 The Expertise-Oriented Approach 127 The Consumer-Oriented Evaluation Approach 143 6 Program-Oriented Evaluation Approaches 153 The Objectives-Oriented Evaluation Approach 154 Logic Models and Theory-Based Evaluation Approaches 159 How Program-Oriented Evaluation Approaches Have Been Used 164 Strengths and Limitations of Program-Oriented Evaluation Approaches 166 Goal-Free Evaluation 168 7 Decision-Oriented Evaluation Approaches 172 Developers of Decision-Oriented Evaluation Approaches and Their Contributions 173 The Decision-Oriented Approaches 173 How the Decision-Oriented Evaluation Approaches Have Been Used 184 Strengths and Limitations of Decision-Oriented Evaluation Approaches 184 x Contents
  • 10. 8 Participant-Oriented Evaluation Approaches 189 Evolution of Participatory Approaches 190 Developers of Participant-Oriented Evaluation Approaches and Their Contributions 191 Participatory Evaluation Today: Two Streams and Many Approaches 199 Some Specific Contemporary Approaches 205 How Participant-Oriented Evaluation Approaches Have Been Used 220 Strengths and Limitations of Participant-Oriented Evaluation Approaches 223 9 Other Current Considerations: Cultural Competence and Capacity Building 231 The Role of Culture and Context in Evaluation Practice and Developing Cultural Competence 232 Evaluation’s Roles in Organizations: Evaluation Capacity Building and Mainstreaming Evaluation 235 10 A Comparative Analysis of Approaches 243 A Summary and Comparative Analysis of Evaluation Approaches 243 Cautions About the Alternative Evaluation Approaches 244 Contributions of the Alternative Evaluation Approaches 248 Comparative Analysis of Characteristics of Alternative Evaluation Approaches 249 Eclectic Uses of the Alternative Evaluation Approaches 251 PART THREE • Practical Guidelines for Planning Evaluations 257 11 Clarifying the Evaluation Request and Responsibilities 259 Understanding the Reasons for Initiating the Evaluation 260 Conditions Under Which Evaluation Studies Are Inappropriate 265 Contents xi
  • 11. Determining When an Evaluation Is Appropriate: Evaluability Assessment 268 Using an Internal or External Evaluator 271 Hiring an Evaluator 277 How Different Evaluation Approaches Clarify the Evaluation Request and Responsibilities 281 12 Setting Boundaries and Analyzing the Evaluation Context 286 Identifying Stakeholders and Intended Audiences for an Evaluation 287 Describing What Is to Be Evaluated: Setting the Boundaries 290 Analyzing the Resources and Capabilities That Can Be Committed to the Evaluation 304 Analyzing the Political Context for the Evaluation 307 Variations Caused by the Evaluation Approach Used 309 Determining Whether to Proceed with the Evaluation 310 13 Identifying and Selecting the Evaluation Questions and Criteria 314 Identifying Useful Sources for Evaluation Questions: The Divergent Phase 315 Selecting the Questions, Criteria, and Issues to Be Addressed: The Convergent Phase 328 Specifying the Evaluation Criteria and Standards 332 Remaining Flexible during the Evaluation: Allowing New Questions, Criteria, and Standards to Emerge 336 14 Planning How to Conduct the Evaluation 340 Developing the Evaluation Plan 342 Specifying How the Evaluation Will Be Conducted: The Management Plan 358 xii Contents
  • 12. Establishing Evaluation Agreements and Contracts 367 Planning and Conducting the Metaevaluation 368 PART FOUR • Practical Guidelines for Conducting and Using Evaluations 379 15 Collecting Evaluative Information: Design, Sampling, and Cost Choices 381 Using Mixed Methods 383 Designs for Collecting Descriptive and Causal Information 387 Sampling 407 Cost Analysis 411 16 Collecting Evaluative Information: Data Sources and Methods, Analysis, and Interpretation 418 Common Sources and Methods for Collecting Information 419 Planning and Organizing the Collection of Information 443 Analysis of Data and Interpretation of Findings 444 17 Reporting Evaluation Results: Maximizing Use and Understanding 453 Purposes of Evaluation Reporting and Reports 454 Different Ways of Reporting 455 Important Factors in Planning Evaluation Reporting 456 Key Components of a Written Report 469 Suggestions for Effective Oral Reporting 476 A Checklist for Good Evaluation Reports 479 How Evaluation Information Is Used 479 Contents xiii
  • 13. 18 The Future of Evaluation 490 The Future of Evaluation 490 Predictions Concerning the Profession of Evaluation 491 Predictions Concerning the Practice of Evaluation 493 A Vision for Evaluation 496 Conclusion 497 Appendix A The Program Evaluation Standards and Guiding Principles for Evaluators 499 References 505 Author Index 526 Subject Index 530 xiv Contents
  • 14. I Introduction to Evaluation Part 1 This initial section of our text provides the background necessary for the begin- ning student to understand the chapters that follow. In it, we attempt to accom- plish three things: to explore the concept of evaluation and its various meanings, to review the history of program evaluation and its development as a discipline, and to introduce the reader to some of the factors that influence the practice of evaluation. We also acquaint the reader with some of the current controversies and trends in the field. In Chapter 1, we discuss the basic purposes of evaluation and the varying roles evaluators play. We define evaluation specifically, and we introduce the reader to several different concepts and distinctions that are important to evalua- tion. In Chapter 2, we summarize the origins of today’s evaluation tenets and prac- tices and the historical evolution of evaluation as a growing force in improving our society’s public, nonprofit, and corporate programs. In Chapter 3, we discuss the political, ethical, and interpersonal factors that underlie any evaluation and em- phasize its distinction from research. Our intent in Part One is to provide the reader with information essential to understanding not only the content of the sections that follow but also the wealth of material that exists in the literature on program evaluation. Although the con- tent in the remainder of this book is intended to apply primarily to the evaluation of programs, most of it also applies to the evaluation of policies, products, and processes used in those areas and, indeed, to any object of an evaluation. In Part Two we will introduce you to different approaches to evaluation to enlarge your understanding of the diversity of choices that evaluators and stakeholders make in undertaking evaluation.
  • 16. Evaluation’s Basic Purpose, Uses, and Conceptual Distinctions Orienting Questions 1. What is evaluation? Why is it important? 2. What is the difference between formal and informal evaluation? 3. What are some purposes of evaluation? What roles can the evaluator play? 4. What are the major differences between formative and summative evaluations? 5. What questions might an evaluator address in a needs assessment, a process evaluation, and an outcome evaluation? 6. What are the advantages and disadvantages of an internal evaluator? An external evaluator? 3 1 The challenges confronting our society in the twenty-first century are enormous. Few of them are really new. In the United States and many other countries, the public and nonprofit sectors are grappling with complex issues: educating children for the new century; reducing functional illiteracy; strengthening families; train- ing people to enter or return to the workforce; training employees who currently work in an organization; combating disease and mental illness; fighting discrimi- nation; and reducing crime, drug abuse, and child and spouse abuse. More recently, pursuing and balancing environmental and economic goals and working to ensure peace and economic growth in developing countries have become prominent concerns. As this book is written, the United States and many countries around
  • 17. 4 Part I • Introduction to Evaluation the world are facing challenging economic problems that touch every aspect of so- ciety. The policies and programs created to address these problems will require evaluation to determine which solutions to pursue and which programs and poli- cies are working and which are not. Each new decade seems to add to the list of challenges, as society and the problems it confronts become increasingly complex. As society’s concern over these pervasive and perplexing problems has intensified, so have its efforts to resolve them. Collectively, local, regional, national, and international agencies have initiated many programs aimed at eliminating these problems or their underlying causes. In some cases, specific programs judged to have been ineffective have been “mothballed” or sunk outright, often to be replaced by a new program designed to attack the problem in a different—and, hopefully, more effective—manner. In more recent years, scarce resources and budget deficits have posed still more challenges as administrators and program managers have had to struggle to keep their most promising programs afloat. Increasingly, policymakers and man- agers have been faced with tough choices, being forced to cancel some programs or program components to provide sufficient funds to start new programs, to con- tinue others, or simply to keep within current budgetary limits. To make such choices intelligently, policy makers need good information about the relative effectiveness of programs. Which programs are working well? Which are failing? What are the programs’ relative costs and benefits? Similarly, each program manager needs to know how well different parts of programs are working. What can be done to improve those parts of the program that are not working as well as they should? Have all aspects of the program been thought through carefully at the planning stage, or is more planning needed? What is the theory or logic model for the program’s effectiveness? What adaptations would make the program more effective? Answering such questions is the major task of program evaluation. The ma- jor task of this book is to introduce you to evaluation and the vital role it plays in virtually every sector of modern society. However, before we can hope to convince you that good evaluation is an essential part of good programs, we must help you understand at least the basic concepts in each of the following areas: • How we—and others—define evaluation • How formal and informal evaluation differ • The basic purposes—and various uses—of formal evaluation • The distinction between basic types of evaluation • The distinction between internal and external evaluators • Evaluation’s importance and its limitations Covering all of those areas thoroughly could fill a whole book, not just one chapter of an introductory text. In this chapter, we provide only brief coverage of each of these topics to orient you to concepts and distinctions necessary to under- stand the content of later chapters.
  • 18. Chapter 1 • Evaluation’s Basic Purpose, Uses, and Conceptual Distinctions 5 Informal versus Formal Evaluation Evaluation is not a new concept. In fact, people have been evaluating, or examin- ing and judging things, since the beginning of human history. Neanderthals prac- ticed it when determining which types of saplings made the best spears, as did Persian patriarchs in selecting the most suitable suitors for their daughters, and English yeomen who abandoned their own crossbows in favor of the Welsh longbow. They had observed that the longbow could send an arrow through the stoutest armor and was capable of launching three arrows while the crossbow sent only one. Al- though no formal evaluation reports on bow comparisons have been unearthed in English archives, it is clear that the English evaluated the longbow’s value for their purposes, deciding that its use would strengthen them in their struggles with the French. So the English armies relinquished their crossbows, perfected and improved on the Welsh longbow, and proved invincible during most of the Hundred Years’ War. By contrast, French archers experimented briefly with the longbow, then went back to the crossbow—and continued to lose battles. Such are the perils of poor evaluation! Unfortunately, the faulty judgment that led the French to persist in us- ing an inferior weapon represents an informal evaluation pattern that has been re- peated too often throughout history. As human beings, we evaluate every day. Practitioners, managers, and policymakers make judgments about students, clients, personnel, programs, and policies. These judgments lead to choices and decisions. They are a natural part of life. A school principal observes a teacher working in the classroom and forms some judgments about that teacher’s effectiveness. A program officer of a founda- tion visits a substance abuse program and forms a judgment about the program’s quality and effectiveness. A policymaker hears a speech about a new method for de- livering health care to uninsured children and draws some conclusions about whether that method would work in his state. Such judgments are made every day in our work. These judgments, however, are based on informal, or unsystematic, evaluations. Informal evaluations can result in faulty or wise judgments. But, they are characterized by an absence of breadth and depth because they lack systematic procedures and formally collected evidence. As humans, we are limited in making judgments both by the lack of opportunity to observe many different settings, clients, or students and by our own past experience, which both informs and bi- ases our judgments. Informal evaluation does not occur in a vacuum. Experience, instinct, generalization, and reasoning can all influence the outcome of informal evaluations, and any or all of these may be the basis for sound, or faulty, judg- ments. Did we see the teacher on a good day or a bad one? How did our past ex- perience with similar students, course content, and methods influence our judgment? When we conduct informal evaluations, we are less cognizant of these limitations. However, when formal evaluations are not possible, informal evalua- tion carried out by knowledgeable, experienced, and fair people can be very use- ful indeed. It would be unrealistic to think any individual, group, or organization could formally evaluate everything it does. Often informal evaluation is the only
  • 19. 6 Part I • Introduction to Evaluation practical approach. (In choosing an entrée from a dinner menu, only the most compulsive individual would conduct exit interviews with restaurant patrons to gather data to guide that choice.) Informal and formal evaluation, however, form a continuum. Schwandt (2001a) acknowledges the importance and value of everyday judgments and argues that evaluation is not simply about methods and rules. He sees the evaluator as helping practitioners to “cultivate critical intelligence.” Evaluation, he notes, forms a middle ground “between overreliance on and over-application of method, general principles, and rules to making sense of ordinary life on one hand, and advocating trust in personal inspiration and sheer intuition on the other” (p. 86). Mark, Henry, and Julnes (2000) echo this concept when they describe evaluation as a form of assisted sense-making. Evaluation, they observe, “has been developed to assist and extend natural human abilities to observe, understand, and make judgments about policies, programs, and other objects in evaluation” (p. 179). Evaluation, then, is a basic form of human behavior. Sometimes it is thorough, structured, and formal. More often it is impressionistic and private. Our focus is on the more formal, structured, and public evaluation. We want to inform readers of various approaches and methods for developing criteria and collecting information about alternatives. For those readers who aspire to become professional evaluators, we will be introducing you to the approaches and methods used in these formal studies. For all readers, practitioners and evaluators, we hope to cultivate that critical intelligence, to make you cognizant of the factors influencing your more informal judgments and decisions. A Brief Definition of Evaluation and Other Key Terms In the previous section, the perceptive reader will have noticed that the term “evaluation” has been used rather broadly without definition beyond what was implicit in context. But the rest of this chapter could be rather confusing if we did not stop briefly to define the term more precisely. Intuitively, it may not seem dif- ficult to define evaluation. For example, one typical dictionary definition of eval- uation is “to determine or fix the value of: to examine and judge.” Seems quite straightforward, doesn’t it? Yet among professional evaluators, there is no uni- formly agreed-upon definition of precisely what the term “evaluation” means. In fact, in considering the role of language in evaluation, Michael Scriven, one of the founders of evaluation, for an essay on the use of language in evaluation recently noted there are nearly 60 different terms for evaluation that apply to one context or another. These include adjudge, appraise, analyze, assess, critique, examine, grade, inspect, judge, rate, rank, review, score, study, test, and so on (cited in Patton, 2000, p. 7). While all these terms may appear confusing, Scriven notes that the variety of uses of the term evaluation “reflects not only the immense im- portance of the process of evaluation in practical life, but the explosion of a new area of study” (cited in Patton, 2000, p. 7). This chapter will introduce the reader
  • 20. Chapter 1 • Evaluation’s Basic Purpose, Uses, and Conceptual Distinctions 7 to the array of variations in application, but, at this point, we will focus on one definition that encompasses many others. Early in the development of the field, Scriven (1967) defined evaluation as judging the worth or merit of something. Many recent definitions encompass this original definition of the term (Mark, Henry, & Julnes, 2000; Schwandt, 2008; Scriven, 1991a; Stake, 2000a; Stufflebeam, 2001b). We concur that evaluation is de- termining the worth or merit of an evaluation object (whatever is evaluated). More broadly, we define evaluation as the identification, clarification, and application of defensible criteria to determine an evaluation object’s value (worth or merit) in rela- tion to those criteria. Note that this definition requires identifying and clarifying de- fensible criteria. Often, in practice, our judgments of evaluation objects differ because we have failed to identify and clarify the means that we, as individuals, use to judge an object. One educator may value a reading curriculum because of the love it instills for reading; another may disparage the program because it does not move the child along as rapidly as other curricula in helping the student to recognize and interpret letters, words, or meaning. These educators differ in the value they assign to the cur- ricula because their criteria differ. One important role of an evaluator is to help stake- holders articulate their criteria and to stimulate dialogue about them. Our definition, then, emphasizes using those criteria to judge the merit or worth of the product. Evaluation uses inquiry and judgment methods, including: (1) determining the criteria and standards for judging quality and deciding whether those stan- dards should be relative or absolute, (2) collecting relevant information, and (3) applying the standards to determine value, quality, utility, effectiveness, or sig- nificance. It leads to recommendations intended to optimize the evaluation object in relation to its intended purpose(s) or to help stakeholders determine whether the evaluation object is worthy of adoption, continuation, or expansion. Programs, Policies, and Products In the United States, we often use the term “program evaluation.” In Europe and some other countries, however, evaluators often use the term “policy evaluation.” This book is concerned with the evaluation of programs, policies, and products. We are not, however, concerned with evaluating personnel or the performance of indi- vidual people or employees. That is a different area, one more concerned with man- agement and personnel.1 (See Joint Committee. [1988]) But, at this point, it would be useful to briefly discuss what we mean by programs, policies, and products. “Program” is a term that can be defined in many ways. In its simplest sense, a pro- gram is a “standing arrangement that provides for a . . . service” (Cronbach et al., 1980, p. 14). The Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation (1994) defined program simply as “activities that are provided on a continuing basis” (p. 3). In their 1 The Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation has developed some standards for personnel evaluation that may be of interest to readers involved in evaluating the performance of teach- ers or other employees working in educational settings. These can be found at http://www.eval.org/ evaluationdocuments/perseval.html.
  • 21. Another Random Scribd Document with Unrelated Content
  • 22. and by such treatment, at the end of a few hours, we have a mass equally lifeless. In their flower-vases, too, they show the most perfect knowledge of contrasts. To any one of taste it is unnecessary to show how inappropriate our gilt and often brilliantly colored; flower-vases are for the objects they are to hold. By employing such receptacles, all effects of color and pleasing contrasts are effectually ruined. The Japanese flower-vase is often made of the roughest and coarsest pottery, with rough patches of glaze and irregular contour; it is made solid and heavy, with a good bottom, and is capable of holding a big cherry branch without up-setting. Its very roughness shows off by contrast the delicate flowers it holds. With just such rough material as we use in the making of drain-tiles and molasses jugs, the Japanese make the most fascinating and appropriate flower-vases; but their potters are artists, and, alas! ours are not. In this connection it is interesting to note that in our country, artists, and others having artistic tastes, have always recognized the importance of observing proper contrasts between flowers and their holders, and until within a very few years have been forced, for want of better receptacles, to arrange flowers in German pottery-mugs, Chinese ginger-jars, and the like. Though these vessels were certainly inappropriate enough, the flowers looked vastly prettier in them than they ever could in the frightful wares designed expressly to hold them, made by American and European manufacturers. What a satire on our art industries,—a despairing resort to beer-mugs, ginger-jars and blacking-pots, for suitable flower-vases! Who does not recall, indeed cannot see to-day on the shelves of most “crockery shops,” a hideous battalion of garish porcelain and iniquitous parian vases, besides other multitudinous evidences of utter [pg 305] ignorance as to what a flower-vase should be, in the discordantly colored and decorated glass receptacles designed to hold these daintiest bits of Nature's handiwork?
  • 23. Besides the flower-vase made to stand on the floor, the Japanese have others which are made to hang from a hook,—generally from the post or partition that divides the tokonoma from its companion recess, or sometimes from a corner-post. When a permanent partition occurs in a room, it is quite proper to hang the vase from the middle post. In all these cases it is hung midway between the floor and the ceiling. These hanging flower-vases are infinite in form and design, and are made of pottery, bronze, bamboo, or wood. Those made of pottery and bronze may be in the form of simple tubes; often, however, natural forms are represented,—such as fishes, insects, sections of bamboo, and the like. Fig. 294.—Hanging flower-holder of bamboo. The Japanese are fond of ancient objects, and jars which have been dug up are often mutilated, at least for the antiquarian, by having rings inserted in their sides so that they may be hung up for flower- holders. A curious form of holder is made out of a rugged knot of wood. Any quaint and abnormal growth of wood, in which an opening can be made big enough to accommodate a section of bamboo to hold the
  • 24. water, is used for a flower-vase. Such an object will be decorated with tiny bronze ants, a silver spider's web with bronze spider, and pearl wrought in the shape of a fungus. These and other singular caprices are worked into and upon the wood as ornaments. [pg 306] A very favorite form of flower-holder is one made of bamboo. The bamboo tube is worked in a variety of ways, by cutting out various sections from the sides. Fig. 294 represents an odd, yet common shape, arranged for cha-no-yu (tea-parties), and sketched at one of these parties. The bamboo is an admirable receptacle for water, and a section of it is used for this purpose in many forms of pottery and bronze flower-holders.
  • 25. Fig. 295.—Hanging flower-holder of basket-work. [pg 307] Rich brown-colored baskets are also favorite receptacles for flowers, a segment of bamboo being used to hold the water. The accompanying figure (fig. 295) is a sketch of a hanging basket, the flowers having been arranged by a lover of the tea-ceremonies and old pottery. Many of these baskets are quite old, and are highly prized by the Japanese. At the street flower-fairs cheap and curious devices are often seen for holding flower-pots. The annexed figure (fig. 296) illustrates a form of bracket in which a thin irregular-
  • 26. shaped slab of wood has attached to it a crooked branch of a tree, upon the free ends of which wooden blocks are secured as shelves upon which the flower-pots are to rest. A hole is made at the top so that it may be hung against the wall, and little cleats are fastened crosswise to hold long strips of stiff paper, upon which it is customary to write stanzas of poetry. These objects are of the cheapest description, can be got for a few pennies, and are bought by the poorest classes. Fig. 296.—Cheap bracket for flower-pots. For flower-holders suspended from above, a common form is a square wooden bucket, or one made out of pottery or bronze in imitation of this form. Bamboo cut in horizontal forms is also used for suspended flower-holders. Indeed, there seems to be no end of curious objects used for this purpose,—a gourd, the semi-cylindrical tile, sea-shells, as with us, and forms made in pottery or bronze in imitation of these objects.
  • 27. Quaint and odd-shaped flower-stands are made in the form of buckets. The following figure (fig. 297) represents one [pg 308] sketched at the National Exposition at Tokio in 1877. Its construction was very ingenious; three staves of the low bucket were continued upward to form portions of three small buckets above, and each of these, in turn, contributed a stave to the single bucket that crowned the whole. Another form, made by the same contributor thought not so symmetrical, was quite as odd. Fig. 297.—Curious combination of buckets for flowers. Curious little braided-straw affairs are made to hold flowers, or rather the bamboo segments in which the flowers are kept. These are made in the form of insects, fishes, mushrooms, and other natural objects. These are mentioned, not that they have a special merit, but to illustrate the devices used| by the common people in decorating their homes. Racks of wood richly lacquered are also used, from which hanging flower-holders are suspended. These
  • 28. objects are rarely seen now, and I have never chanced to see one in use. In the chapter on Interiors various forms of vases are shown in the tokonoma. My interest in Japanese homes was first aroused by wishing to know precisely what use the Japanese made of a class of objects with which I had been familiar in the Art Museums and private collections at home; furthermore, a study of their houses led me to search for those evidences of household decoration which might possibly parallel the hanging baskets, corner [pg 309] brackets, and especially ornaments made of birch bark, fungi, moss, shell-work, and the like, with which our humbler homes are often garnished. It was delightful to find that the Japanese were susceptible to the charms embodied in these bits of Nature, and that they too used them in similar decorative ways. At the outset, search for an object aside from the bare rooms seemed fruitless enough. At first sight these rooms appeared absolutely barren; in passing from one room to another one got the idea that the house was to be let. Picture to yourself a room with no fire-place and accompanying mantel,—that shelf of shelves for the support of pretty objects; no windows with their convenient interspaces for the suspension of pictures or brackets; no table, rarely even cabinets, to hold bright-colored bindings and curious bric-a-brac; no side-boards upon which to array the rich pottery or glistening porcelain; no chairs, desks, or bedsteads, and consequently no opportunity for the display of elaborate carvings or rich cloth coverings. Indeed, one might well wonder in what way this people displayed their pretty objects for household decorations. After studying the Japanese home for a while, however, one comes to realize that display as such is out of the question with them, and to recognize that a severe Quaker-like simplicity is really one of the great charms of a Japanese room. Absolute cleanliness and refinement, with very few objects in sight upon which the eye may
  • 29. rest contentedly, are the main features in household adornment which the Japanese strive after, and which they attain with a simplicity and effectiveness that we can never hope to reach. Our rooms seem to them like a curiosity shop, and “stuffy” to the last degree. Such a maze of vases, pictures, plaques, bronzes, with shelves, brackets, cabinets, and tables loaded down with bric-a-brac, is quite enough to drive a Japanese frantic. We parade in the most unreasoning manner every object of this nature in our possession; and with the [pg 310] periodical recurrence of birthday and Christmas holidays, and the consequent influx of new things, the less pretty ones already on parade are banished to the chambers above to make room for the new ones; and as these in turn get crowded out they rise to the garret, there to be providentially broken up by the children, or to be preserved for future antiquarians to contemplate, and to ponder over the condition of art in this age. Our walls are hung with large fish-plates which were intended to hold food; heavy bronzes, which in a Japanese room are made to rest solidly on the floor, and to hold great woody branches of the plum or cherry with their wealth of blossoms, are with us often placed on high shelves or perched in some perilous position over the door. The ignorant display is more rarely seen of thrusting a piece of statuary into the window, so that the neighbor across the way may see it; when a silhouette, cut out of stiff pasteboard, would in this position answer all the purposes so far as the inmates are concerned. How often we destroy an artist's best efforts by exposing his picture against some glaring fresco or distracting wall-paper! And still not content with the accumulated misery of such a room, we allow the upholsterer and furnisher to provide us with a gorgeously framed mirror, from which we may have flashed back at us the contents of the room reversed, or, more dreadful still, a reverberation of these horrors through opposite reflecting surfaces,—a futile effort of Nature to sicken us of the whole thing by endless repetition.24 That we in America are not exceptional in these matters of questionable furnishing, one may learn by listening to an English authority on this subject,—one who has done more than any other
  • 30. writer in calling attention not only to violations of true taste in household adornment, but who points out in a most rational way the correct paths to follow, not only to avoid that [pg 311] which is offensive and pretentious, but to arrive at better methods and truer principles in matters of taste. We refer to Charles L. Eastlake and his timely work entitled “Hints on Household Taste.” In his animadversions on the commonplace taste shown in the furnishing of English houses, he says “it pervades and vitiates the judgment by which we are accustomed to select and approve the objects of every-day use which we see around us. It crosses our path in the Brussels carpet of our drawing-room; it is about our bed in the shape of gaudy chintz; it compels us to rest on chairs, and to sit at tables which are designed in accordance with the worst principles of construction, and invested with shapes confessedly unpicturesque. It sends us metal-work from Birmingham, which is as vulgar in form as it is flimsy in execution. It decorates the finest modern porcelain with the most objectionable character of ornament. It lines our walls with silly representations of vegetable life, or with a mass of uninteresting diaper. It bids us, in short, furnish our houses after the same fashion as we dress ourselves,—and that is with no more sense of real beauty than if art were a dead letter.” Let us contrast our tastes in these matters with those of the Japanese, and perhaps profit by the lesson. In the previous chapters sufficient details have been given for one to grasp the structural features of a Japanese room. Let us now observe that the general tone and color of a Japanese apartment are subdued. Its atmosphere is restful; and only after one has sat on the mats for some time do the unostentatious fittings of the apartment attract one's notice. The papers of the fusuma of neutral tints; the plastered surfaces, when they occur equally tinted in similar tones, warm browns and stone-colors predominating; the cedar-board ceiling, with the rich color of that wood; the wood-work everywhere modestly conspicuous, and always presenting the natural colors [pg 312] undefiled by the painter's miseries,—these all combine to render the room quiet and refined to the last degree. The floor in
  • 31. bright contrast is covered with its cool straw matting,—a uniform bright surface set off by the rectangular black borders of the mats. It is such an infinite comfort to find throughout the length and breadth of that Empire the floors covered with the unobtrusive straw matting. Monotonous some would think: yes, it has the monotony of fresh air and of pure water. Such a room requires but little adornment in the shape of extraneous objects; indeed, there are but few places where such objects can be placed. But observe, that while in our rooms one is at liberty to cover his wall with pictures without the slightest regard to light or effect, the Japanese room has a recess clean and free from the floor to the hooded partition that spans it above, and this recess is placed at right angles to the source of light; furthermor it is exalted as the place of highest honor in the room—and here, and here alone, hangs the picture. Not a varnished affair, to see which one has to perambulate the apartment with head awry to get a vantage point of vision, but a picture which may be seen in its proper light from any point of the room. In the tokonoma there is usually but one picture exposed,—though, as we have seen, this recess may be wide enough to accommodate a set of two or three. Fig. 298.—Framed picture, with supports. Between the kamoi, or lintel, and the ceiling is a space say of eighteen inches or more, according to the height of the room; and here may sometimes be seen a long narrow [pg 313] picture, framed in a narrow wood-border, or secured to a flat frame, which is
  • 32. concealed by the paper or brocade that borders the picture. This picture tips forward at a considerable angle, and is supported on two iron hooks. In order that the edge of the frame may not be scarred by the iron, it is customary to interpose triangular red-crape cushions. A bamboo support is often substituted for the iron hooks, as shown in the sketch (fig. 298). The picture may be a landscape, or a spray of flowers; but more often it consists of a few Chinese characters embodying some bit of poetry, moral precept, or sentiment,—and usually the characters have been written by some poet, scholar, or other distinguished man. The square wooden post which comes in the middle of a partition between two corners of the room may be adorned by a long, narrow, and thin strip of cedar the width of the post, upon which is painted a picture of some kind. This strip, instead of being of wood, may be of silk and brocade, like a kake-mono, having only one kaze-obi hanging in the middle from above. Cheap ones may be of straw, rush, or thin strips of bamboo. This object, of whatever material, is called hashira kakushi,—literally meaning “post-hide.” If of wood, both sides are decorated; so that after one side has done duty for awhile the other side is exposed. The wood is usually of dark cedar evenly grained, and the sketch is painted directly on the wood. Fig. 299 shows both sides of one of these strips.
  • 33. Fig. 299.—Hashira kakushi. [pg 314] The decoration for these objects is very skilfully treated by the artist; and while it might bother our artists to know what subject to select for a picture on so awkward and limited surface, it offers no trouble to the Japanese decorator. He simply takes a vertical slice out of some good subject, as one might get a glimpse of Nature through a slightly open door,—and imagination is left to supply the rest. These objects find their way to our markets, but the bright color used in their decoration show that they have been painted for the masses in this country. The post upon which this kind of picture is hung, as well as the toko-bashira, may also adorned with a hanging flower- holder such as has already been described.
  • 34. A Japanese may have a famous collection of pictures, yet these are stowed away in his kura, with the exception of the one exposed in the tokonoma. If he is a man of taste, he changes the picture from time to time according to the season, the character of his guests, or for special occasions. In one house where I was a guest for a few days the picture was changed every day. A picture may do duty for a few weeks or months, when it is carefully rolled up, stowed away in its silk covering and box, and another one is unrolled. In this way a picture never becomes monotonous. The listless and indifferent way in which an American will often regard his own pictures when showing them to a friend, indicates that his pictures have been so long on his walls that they no longer arouse any attention or delight. It is true, one never wearies in contemplating the work of the great masters; but one should remember that all pictures are not masterpieces, and that by constant exposure the effect of a picture becomes seriously impaired. The way in which pictures with us are crowded on the walls,—many of them of necessity in the worst possible light, or no light at all when the windows are muffled with heavy [pg 315] curtains,—shows that the main interest centres in their embossed gilt frames, which are conspicuous in all lights. The principle of constant exposure is certainly wrong; a good picture is all the more enjoyable if it is not forever staring one in the face. Who wants to contemplate a burning tropical sunset on a full stomach, or a drizzling northern mist on an empty one? And yet these are the experiences which we are often compelled to endure. Why not modify our rooms, and have a bay or recess,—an alcove in the best possible light,—in which one or two good pictures may be properly hung, with fitting accompaniments in the way of a few flowers, or a bit of pottery or bronze? We have never modified the interior arrangement of our house in the slightest degree from the time when it was shaped in the most economical way as a shelter in which to eat, sleep, and die,—a rectangular kennel, with necessary holes for light, and necessary holes to get in and out by. At the same time, its inmates were saturated with a religion so austere and sombre that the possession of a picture was for a long time looked upon as savoring of worldliness and vanity, unless, indeed, the
  • 35. subject suggested the other world by a vision of hexapodous angels, or of the transient resting-place to that world in the guise of a tombstone and willows, or an immediate departure thereto in the shape of a death-bed scene. Among the Japanese all collections of pottery and other bric-a-brac are, in the same way as the pictures, carefully enclosed in brocade bags and boxes, and stowed away to be unpacked only when appreciative friends come to the house; and then the host enjoys them with equal delight. Aside from the heightened enjoyment sure to be evoked by the Japanese method, one is spared an infinite amount of chagrin and misery in having an unsophisticated friend become enthusiastic over the wrong thing, or mistake a rare etching of Dante for a North American savage, or manifest a thrill of delight [pg 316] over an object because he learns incidentally that its value corresponds with his yearly grocery bill. Nothing is more striking in a Japanese room than the harmonies and contrasts between the colors of the various objects and the room itself. Between the picture and the brocades with which it is mounted, and the quiet and subdued color of the tokonoma in which it is hung, there is always the most refined harmony, and such a background for the delicious and healthy contrasts of color when a spray of bright cherry blossoms enlivens the quiet tones of this honored place! The general tone of the room sets off to perfection the simplest spray of flowers, a quiet picture, a rough bit of pottery or an old bronze; and at the same time a costly and magnificent piece of gold lacquer blazes out like a gem from these simple surroundings,—and yet the harmony is not disturbed. It is an interesting fact that the efforts at harmonious and decorative effects which have been made by famous artists and decorators in this country and in England have been strongly imbued by the Japanese spirit, and every success attained is a confirmation of the correctness of Japanese taste. Wall-papers are now more quiet and
  • 36. unobtrusive; the merit of simplicity and reserve where it belongs, and a fitness everywhere, are becoming more widely recognized. It is rare to see cabinets or conveniences for the display of bric-a- brac in a Japanese house, though sometimes a lacquer-stand with a few shelves may be seen,—and on this may be displayed a number of objects consisting of ancient pottery, some stone implements, a fossil, old coins, or a few water-worn fragments of rock brought from China, and mounted on dark wood stands. The Japanese are great collectors of autographs, coins, brocades, metal-work, and many other groups of objects; but these are rarely exposed. In regard to objects in the tokonoma, I have seen in different tokonoma, variously displayed, [pg 317] natural fragments of quartz, crystal spheres, curious water-worn stones, coral, old bronze, as well as the customary vase for flowers or the incense-burner. These various objects are usually, but not always, supported on a lacquer-stand. In the chigai-dana I have also noticed the sword-rack, lacquer writing- box, maki-mono, and books; and when I was guilty of the impertinence of peeking into the cupboards, I have seen there a few boxes containing pottery, pictures, and the like,—though, as before remarked, such things are usually kept in the kura. Fig. 300.—Writing-desk. Besides the lacquer cabinets, there may be seen in the houses of the higher class an article of furniture consisting of a few deep shelves, with portions of the shelves closed, forming little cupboards. Such a cabinet is used to hold writing-paper, toilet articles, trays for flowers,
  • 37. and miscellaneous objects for use and ornament. These cases are often beautifully lacquered. The usual form of writing-desk consists of a low stool not over a foot in height, with plain side-pieces or legs for support, sometimes having shallow drawers; and this is about the only piece of furniture that would parallel our table. The illustration (fig. 300) shows one of these tables, upon which may be seen the paper, ink-stone, brush, and brush-rest. In the cities and large villages the people stand in constant fear of conflagrations. Almost every month they are reminded of the instability of the ground they rest upon by tremors and slight shocks, which may be the precursors of destructive earthquakes, usually accompanied by conflagrations [pg 318] infinitely more disastrous. Allusion has been made to the little portable engines with which houses are furnished. In the city house one may notice a little platform or staging with hand-rail erected on the ridge of the roof (fig. 301); a ladder or flight of steps leads to this staging, and on alarms of fire anxious faces may be seen peering from these lookouts in the direction of the burning buildings. It is usual to have resting on the platform a huge bucket or half barrel filled with water, and near by a long-handled brush; and this is used to sprinkle water on places threatened by the sparks and fire-brands, which often fill the air in times of great conflagrations.
  • 38. Fig. 301.—Staging on house-roof, with bucket and brush. During the prevalence of a high wind it is a common sight to see the small dealers packing their goods in large baskets and square cloths to tie up ready to transport in case of fire. At such times the windows and doors of the kura are closed and the chinks plastered with mud, which is always at hand either under a platform near the door or in a large earthen jar near the openings. In private dwellings, too, at times of possible danger, the more precious objects are packed up in a [pg 319] square basket-like box, having straps attached to it, so that it can easily be transported on one's shoulders (fig. 302). Fig. 302.—Box for transporting articles. In drawing to a close this description of Japanese homes and their surroundings, I have to regret that neither time, strength, nor opportunity enabled me to make it more complete by a description, accompanied by sketches, of the residences of the highest classes in Japan. Indeed, it is a question whether any of the old residences of the Daimios remain in the condition in which they were twenty years ago, or before the Revolution. Even where the buildings remain, as in the castles of Nagoya and Kumamoto, busy clerks and secretaries are seen sitting in chairs and writing at tables in foreign style; and though in some cases the beautifully decorated fusuma, with the elaborately carved ramma and rich wood-ceiling are still preserved,—
  • 39. as in the castle of Nagoya, as well as in many others doubtless,—the introduction of varnished furniture and gaudy-colored foreign carpets in some of the apartments has brought sad discord into the former harmonies of the place. In Tokio a number of former Daimios have built houses in foreign style, though these somehow or other usually lack the peculiar comforts of our homes. Why a Japanese should build a house in foreign style was somewhat of a puzzle to me, until I saw the character of their homes and the manner in which a foreigner in some cases was likely to behave on entering a Japanese house. If he did not walk into it with his boots on, he was sure to be seen stalking about in his stockinged [pg 320] feet, bumping his head at intervals against the kamoi, or burning holes in the mats in his clumsy attempts to pick up coals from the hibachi, with which to light his cigar. Not being able to sit on the mats properly, he sprawls about in attitudes confessedly as rude as if a Japanese in our apartments were to perch his legs on the table. If he will not take off his boots, he possibly finds his way to the garden, where he wanders about, indenting the paths with his boot-heels or leaving scars on the verandah, possibly washing his hands in the chōdzu-bachi, and generally making himself the cause of much discomfort to the inmates. It was a happy idea when those Japanese who from their prominence in the affairs of the country were compelled to entertain the “foreign barbarian” conceived the idea of erecting a cage in foreign fashion to hold temporarily the menageries which they were often compelled to receive. Seriously, however, the inelastic character of most foreigners, and their inability to adapt themselves to their surroundings have rendered the erection of buildings in foreign style for their entertainment not only a convenience but an absolute necessity. It must be admitted that for the activities of business especially, the foreign style of office and shop is not only more convenient but unquestionably superior.
  • 40. The former Daimio of Chikuzen was one of the first, I believe, to build a house in foreign style in Tokio, and this building is a good typical example of an American two-story house. Attached, however, to this house is a wing containing a number of rooms in native style. Fig. 123 (page 142) shows one of these rooms. The former Daimio of Hizen also lives in a foreign house, and there are many houses in Tokio built by Japanese after foreign plans. In an earlier portion of this work an allusion was made to the absence of those architectural monuments which are so [pg 321] characteristic of European countries. The castles of the Daimios, which are lofty and imposing structures, have already been referred to. There are fortresses also of great extent and solidity,—notably the one at Osaka, erected by Hideyoshi on an eminence near the city; and though the wooden structures formerly surmounting the walls were destroyed by Iyeyasŭ in 1615, the stone battlements as they stand to-day must be considered as among the marvels of engineering skill, and the colossal masses of rock seem all the more colossal after one has become familiar with the tiny and perishable dwellings of the country. In the walls of this fortress are single blocks of stone—at great heights, too, above the surrounding level of the region—measuring in some cases from thirty to thirty-six feet in length, and at least fifteen feet in height. These huge blocks have been transported long distances from the mountains many miles away from the city. Attention is called to the existence of these remarkable monuments as an evidence that the Japanese are quite competent to erect such buildings, if the national taste had inclined them in that way. So far as I know, a national impulse has never led the Japanese to commemorate great deeds in the nation's life by enduring monuments of stone. The reason may be that the plucky little nation has always been successful in repelling invasion; and a peculiar quality in their temperament has prevented them from perpetuating in a public way, either by monuments or by the naming of streets
  • 41. and bridges, the memories of victories won by one section of the country over another. Rev. W. E. Griffis, in an interesting article on “The Streets and Street- names of Yedo,”25 in noticing the almost total absence of the names of great victories or historic battlefields in the naming of the streets and bridges in Tokio, says: “It [pg 322] would have been an unwise policy in the great unifier of Japan, Iyeyasŭ, to have given to the streets in the capital of a nation finally united in peaceful union any name that would be a constant source of humiliation, that would keep alive bitter memories, or that would irritate freshly-healed wounds. The anomalous absence of such names proves at once the sagacity of Iyeyasŭ, and is another witness to the oft-repeated policy used by the Japanese in treating their enemies,—that is, conquer them by kindness and conciliation.”
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