Description

Evaluation policies play a critical role in shaping evaluation practice and outcomes. However, their development and theoretical foundations have received limited scholarly attention. Such research is important as it reveals how earlier policies inform subsequent policymaking and how policy can serve as a bridge between theory and practice by embedding theoretical concepts into organizational requirements (Klein and Marmor 2008; Christie and Lemire, 2019).

This study traces the evolution of federal evaluation policy in Canada from 1977 to 2016, analyzing six evaluation policies using Al Hudib and Cousins’ (2022) ten-component taxonomy. Findings reveal both continuity and incremental change in policy content, with certain expectations for evaluation practice persisting over time while others have shifted in scope, emphasis, and language. By linking these patterns to broader theoretical and historical influences, the study demonstrates how evaluation policy functions as an instrument that reflects, reinforces and institutionalizes prevailing evaluation theories. In particular, findings highlight how successive policy iterations embed conceptual and methodological assumptions that shape evaluative action and institutional norms, effectively bridging the gap between theory, policy, and practice. Understanding these dynamics provides insights for policymakers and evaluators seeking to design policies that better support effective, theory-informed evaluation practice and contribute to the ongoing strengthening of results-based governance.