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Mixed methods in evaluation : history and progress -- Experimental mixed methods designs to evaluate interventions -- Mixed methods evaluation designs for instrument development -- Mixed methods evaluation designs for policy evaluation -- Mixed methods evaluation designs for systematic reviews -- Variations in mixed methods evaluation designs -- Trends, challenges and advances in mixed methods evaluation -- Appendix A: Key resources for additional examples and insights into mixed -- Methods design in evaluation

AbstractCredibility in evaluation is a multifaceted concept that involves consideration of diverse stakeholders' perspectives and purposes. The use of a transformative lens is proposed as a means to bringing issues of social justice and human rights to the foreground in decisions about methodology, credibility of evidence, and use of evaluation findings. ©Wiley Periodicals, Inc., and the American Evaluation Association.

Researchers committed to furthering social justice face many challenges in aligning their values with their research approaches. The transformative paradigm provides a philosophical framework that focuses on ethics in terms of cultural responsiveness, recognizing those dimensions of diversity that are associated with power differences, building trusting relationships, and developing mixed methods that are conducive to social change. Examples of transformative cyclical mixed methods designs are used to illustrate the methodological implications of this paradigm.

Transformative research is rooted in the axiological assumption that priority be given to the furtherance of human rights and the pursuit of social justice (Mertens, 2009; 2010; Mertens, Holmes, & Harris, 2009). This belief provides a basis for subsequent decision making about methodology. Planning for utilization of findings to influence health and social policy is essential during the initial stages of research design, as well as throughout the course of the study in order to improve the probability that data are gathered and disseminated in a way that they can be used to achieve the goals of social change and social justice. Transformative researchers can use policy analysis and advocacy as avenues to social change. This paper focuses on the value of putting research side-by-side with policy making to integrate their pathways in the pursuit of social justice.

Evaluators work in contexts in which social inequities create tensions with regard to decisions about programs and their evaluation. In this article, Donna Mertens explores the meaning of ethics for evaluators who consciously position themselves as promoters of human rights and social justice. The transformative paradigm is offered as a framework for considering the assumptions that guide evaluators who take such a position in terms of methodological implications. This brings evaluators into the complex territory of cultural beliefs and norms that might support or inhibit transformative social change.

Sexual abuse of deaf youth is a serious problem that needs to have attention given to it in a way that will lead to real changes in the lives of the boys and girls affected. Through the use of an emancipatory approach to research, this study investigated the various theories that people hold as to why sexual abuse occurs in this population and what can be done to prevent it. Data were collected at one residential school through document review, observation, interviews, and a survey of staff. The results revealed that some participants held theories that blame the victim or the culture and that such theories would not lead to positive, meaningful change. Other theories that recognize the power inequities inherent in a sexual abuse situation are discussed as leading to potentially fruitful political and social actions.

AbstractDrawing on literature from the field of ethics in research and on multicultural, feminist ethical principles, the author explores methodological implications for evaluation practice.

AbstractThe skills and knowledge that evaluators need include those borrowed from other disciplines as well as those unique to the field of evaluation. Inclusion of multiple perspectives in evaluator training can help to develop the field and improve the practice of evaluation.

The purpose of this study was to explore the quality of the educational experience of deaf students when they communicate with hearing teachers through interpreters and to determine the implications of that experience for the students' classroom behavior. Qualitative methods were used to collect data from the academic staff and the 28 profoundly to severely deaf adolescents who participated in four-week experientially based workshops in marine science in the summers of 1988 and 1989. Three salient issues emerged: the teacher's knowledge of deafness, the role of the interpreter, and behavior management Several of the issues that emerged support previous research, such as physical arrangement of students in the classroom, use of notetakers, student attention span, quality of interpreting, and a tendency toward lenient discipline standards. The implications of the study are discussed in terms of teachers and interpreters working together to improve the deaf adolescent's educational experience.

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the reasons why hearing-impaired students describe their high school experiences as positive or negative and to identify the specific classroom dynamics that contribute to or detract from social development. Data were collected from 49 hearing-impaired undergraduate students who were asked to describe their high school experiences on an open-ended questionnaire with a follow-up interview. The results indicated that graduates of residential programs described their social experiences significantly more positively than graduates of mainstream programs. Reasons included their teachers' ability to sign, socializing with friends and participation in after-school activities. Positive feelings in mainstream programs were associated with such factors as availability of supportive services, ability to voice and lipread, parent involvement, encouragement of interaction and deaf awareness by the teachers. Mainstream students who had the benefit of supportive services reported different perceptions of supportiveness of the academic environment and of teachers' expectations than did those who had no such services in high schools. Implications are drawn for the improved academic and social development of hearing-impaired high school students.