Realist Evaluation of ESP Curriculum Implementation

This chapter explores the potential of realist evaluation methodology to uncover the complexity of implementing an English for Specific Purposes programme at a Saudi university. Realist evaluation draws on the principle of retroduction, which necessitates the redescription of causal components of an event into theoretically significant terms for a closer approximation to reality. The chapter investigates the interaction between underlying causal mechanisms and teachers’ reasonings that operate in a particular context, an interaction which leads to particular outcomes. To this end, we outline how the English for Specific Purposes programme was conceptualised, designed, and implemented, before we explain how relevant theories were defined by analysing the responses of the teachers who implemented the programme. The findings highlight the importance of viewing the role of ESP teachers and acknowledging the need for collaboration across disciplinary boundaries. The study provides further insight into the process of theorising from participants’ responses in the study of both embedded practices and underlying causal mechanisms operating within a specific professional community.