EFFECTIVENESS AND IMPACT EVALUATION IN MULTICULTURAL EDUCATIONAL PROJECTS: EXPERIENCES FROM THE ADAPTYKES PROJECT

The importance of effectiveness of EU funded projects has increased for several reasons, not least because of the financial crisis and a lack of financial resources. For this reason the impact assessment is emphasized by many funding programmes (e.g. Horizon 2020) and proposal evaluators are increasingly interested in the expected impacts of the projects. In higher education, also the structural change of education has increased the importance of project evaluation. In order to transfer the past project results into the new follow-up projects, higher education institutions need internal project evaluation and deeper understanding of project impacts.

The paper examines the common evaluation concepts (effectiveness, impacts and sustainability) of the European Union’s funded projects. In the theoretical part of the paper, we introduce two evaluation approaches, Logical Framework Approach and Realistic Evaluation model, among the many evaluation methodologies available for project evaluation. The Logical Framework Approach (LFA) is one of the most commonly used management tools in projects funded by the European Union. Realistic Evaluation is considered as a potential option when evaluating non-observable factors. It is not very commonly used but it has features which would be very beneficial for project management and evaluation, especially when describing impacts of the project.

In the empirical part of the paper, we describe how these two evaluation approaches were used in the ADAPTYKES project funded by Leonardo da Vinci programe (LbV) as a part of European Union’s Lifelong Learning Programme (LLP). Our main questions were following: How could impacts and effectiveness of this kind of multicultural education projects be ensured? What are the factors influencing on effectiveness of multicultural educational projects? How could realistic evaluation method enhance the impacts of multicultural educational projects? In addition to the effectiveness and suitability of the evaluation methods, we were of course interested in the effectiveness and impacts of the ADAPTYKES project.

As a conclusion, multicultural educational projects should have internally managed evaluation models as guiding tool for the project participants. To ensure the effectiveness of multicultural educational project, realistic evaluation and Logical Framework Approach are recommended to apply. These tools are useful from the very first steps of the preparatory phase to the final phase of the project. Combining summative and formative evaluation approaches give the possibility to gain better holistic picture of the project as a process as well as the desired results. The evaluation should not only ask what works and why, but consider also on what grounds interventions are seen to be relevant and beneficial, and why situations perceived are as problematic in the first place.

Based on our experiences, the critical factors of effectiveness in multicultural educational projects are understanding the other partners’ culture and the different views on pedagogical approaches, a common time from the planning phase throughout the whole project life cycle, a solid mutual understanding on the true goals of the project, and a commitment of the project staff.