Transformative and Social Justice Designs

In this chapter, we focus on evaluation designs for use with programs that seek to address issues of social justice. Such programs might include, for example, those that teach English to refugees and migrants, work with low-income and disadvantaged communities, or are situated in areas of the Global South that lack access to educational resources. We situate the proposed design within the ‘Transformative and Social Justice’ framework set out by Mertens and Wilson (2019). A review of the literature explores ‘principles’ as a basis for language learning, program strategy, and an evaluand. The illustrative case study looks at the challenges of evaluation for a small community-funded language and literacy program for asylum seekers and refugees in urban Australia.